- I was so excited to join this company; within the first month I realized that I had either made a huge mistake, or that I had been lied to during the interview process about what to expect. I now realize that it was both.
- Upstart is the land of finger-pointing and under-the-bus throwing. It comes from the top down and I saw it in many Business Lines; any issues that happen are "blame and deflect".
- My boss (a VP) was toxic; I learned quickly that many colleagues had terrible experiences with him and viewed him (as I did) as an erratic and unprepared leader. He constantly changed the direction we were headed as a team and always blamed his boss, a "Founder" for the lack of clarity or changes. There was a total lack of direction, huge mistakes that were always blamed on others, and many occasions where innocent people were thrown under the bus to save his back. Upper management and many other senior leaders were well aware of this behavior.
- I was lied to multiple times during my recruitment and hiring process about the scope of my role, the size of my team, and the budget that I would have to work with. When resigning, I had two different people involved in my hiring process confirm to me that I was lied to. I walked in to a MUCH different role than I was promised, and had to completely restructure my expectations and plans.
- The company is great at attracting top-talent, however many leaders joining over the past year are realizing what they have signed up for and are leaving as quickly as they start. In my division alone, three different Directors quit within their first year; several others made it clear that they were searching/interviewing/planning to leave. It is chaos.
- There is a very strange dynamic that exists here between "The Founders" and the company as a whole. "The Founders" (which they are constantly referred to as) clearly do not want to be challenged, or pushed outside of their predetermined comfort zones. They hold "Town Halls" on Fridays, which are awesome in theory - but as the company has grown, people are starting to ask tough questions about everything from the actual strength of our AI product, to how we are handling a response to social injustice in our communities, and "The Founders" clearly get frustrated and skate past the tough questions then send out passive-aggressive Slack messages to the company telling us that they are going to start limiting the type and scope of questions that can be asked. They spout the same phrases over and over, "please feel free to call my baby ugly" is their favorite, but any time that actual pushback or critical feedback happened - it was rejected or ignored.
- Upper management never once tried to meet with me or collect any feedback during my time at the company; when I quit - and explained my reasons why - it was met with... nothing. No one tried to dig in deeper to understand. They don't want to know.
- There is a tough chapter ahead for the company and its employees, and they have no real interest in preparing for it.
