Uptake reviews

3.0

43% would recommend to a friend

(262 total reviews)

Adam McElhinney

56% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Uptake has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 262 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Uptake employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

262 reviews
2.0
Mar 14, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the best people in the city work at Uptake. They bring a huge amount of talent, energy, and personality to the table. There are a few projects in the company that are very interesting and are great learning opportunities. The underlying technologies and frameworks are very modern and exciting to work with.

Cons

The company seems to be on shaky ground with its early partners where the value delivered to them has been underwhelming. Lack of vision in the product has teams spinning their wheels churning features which iterate but never really get anywhere. The company is divided working on multiple high level projects which compete for resources. Product acts like Uptake is a development shop for the clients, letting the client dictate the direction of the product when the client does not understand big data. The office is constantly overcrowded and it is very difficult to focus on work unless you have a really good pair of headphones. They hire dozens of people a month and desks are added to any area where they might fit lining hallways and the middle of pods. Getting to and from your desk will involve climbing around desks and whiteboards. There are no rewards for dedicated workers. The company has value awards which consist of people nominating you to win a water bottle. Hard work on a project will not earn you a bonus. Most of the talented engineers at the company have or will get bored with what they are working on and will leave the company for more interesting opportunities.

avatar
Uptake Response
9y
Thank you for taking the time to provide this feedback. We take to heart the comments from our employees here and from all other feedback sources. We take concerns raised here seriously and work to address them. As a young, high-growth company, we know that things move quickly, so we are very mindful of the need to communicate the mission of the company, which is why our senior leadership seeks to stress our unique vision at every opportunity, whether through all-hands meetings, smaller group gatherings, in team email communications, or on the screens lined throughout the office space. This post denotes a need to continue to refine that messaging and identify additional opportunities for reaching our team members. Regarding office space, we are keenly aware of the constraints put on the team as the result of our rapid growth. We continue to add and modify space including the recent addition of the 3rd floor and renovations to our 2nd floor space. This allows for both collaboration and space devoted to more quiet, deep-thought work. Finally, thank you for expressing concerns about employee contributions. There are active discussions underway about how we can further recognize exemplary work as Brad has suggested at recent all-hands. Again, thank you for your feedback. We appreciate the time you took to share your concerns and are committed to creating an environment where this input is not only valued but acted upon for the betterment of our culture and our employee experience.
1.0
Jan 2, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- More snacks than you can imagine (but hurry they will all be gone by Tuesday afternoon) - Office space looks like a west elm catalog (hopefully you like modern semi comfortable furniture) - You get so much free swag (never buy another black shirt again!) - If you work really really hard you may even win a "value award" (a $15 water bottle... nothing more). - Tons of awesome office events where you can drink free beer and listen to the CEO tell you how awesome you are for working such long days (he'll also remind you that this is just the start and that you need to kick it into 12th gear).

Cons

- In order to impress management as an engineer you will have to work 60-80 hour weeks (you are simply a piece of meat to them). - You will frequently be reminded that management wants you to speak up if you think something is wrong.... but then they will not listen or are too busy to even meet with you. - You will do repetitive work to meet S.O.W. (statement of work) commitments. - Depending on which team you land on you will either be under or over worked (there is no happy medium). - You will never get direct feedback about a feature from a customer. - You frequently have to interface with consulting teams that often produce less than quality work.

1.0
Nov 5, 2018

Worst company I have ever worked for

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Love my co-workers -- they are incredibly smart. And, they seem to do a great job bringing in experienced executives.

Cons

Problem is they can't keep the experienced executives. Either they didn't hire the right fit in the first place or they can't retain them. Both of which are huge problems and cause massive whiplash for the rest of the company. They care more about their reputation than what is actually going on at the company. A lot of talk, but no action. Only a small number of people are provided with advancement opportunities. These people just happen to have a close relationship with key executives (and are "yes" people). I've witnessed straight-up bullying from the highest executives in the company. Feels like half the company is looking for a new role in order to escape

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Uptake Response
7y
First, thank you for sharing your thoughts. We take all feedback seriously and we're committed to creating a collaborative, inclusive and transparent environment for all of our employees. I'm glad you love your co-workers. We're proud of the team we've built, and we believe in the opportunity ahead of us. And I'm sorry to hear that you've had some negative experiences at Uptake. I want to be sure that you know that my team and I want to hear from you. You can use the anonymous outreach tool on the Portal, email me/anyone on the People Team directly, or just walk in my office. -Kami Bond, SVP of People
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