Pay- I am currently on the hunt for another role, and although I am actively looking. I have gotten callbacks and met the requirements for roles that pay at least 20% more than my role Wise.
"Scaling"- This word has kind of cursed me haha. I understand growth to maintain a profitable company, but Wise is such a reactive environment and you'll find yourself stressing about this outside of work at times. Wise went through this huge phase of growth post-pandemic (which is rare and amazing] but instead of implementing actual strategy they were reactive. It is clear operational departments like CS and Due diligence have over-hired or will be over headcount in the future. Leaving offices like Tampa and Tartu at the brink of closing. On top of this, although it is quite obvious that Wise is headed in this direction messaging from department heads and officers often gaslight. The company prides itself on "no layoffs" but silently has laid Wisers off. Tampa specific teams and roles have been dissolved and offered severance, and globally recruiting has done some down-sizing; it won't make "headlines" because the percentage of the workforce is not large-enough. Operational teams are constantly changing KPIs and restricting whilst avoiding obvious steps when it comes to re-structure. It's as if no one from the actual team experiencing the change was in the room when the choice was made. This has shown time and time again, I have witnessed an ENTIRE new team be created for a specific issue and everybody celebrating while they got laid off 1 year later.
Disproportionate benefits- Wise seems to only invest into London, Tallinn, and Austin, when it comes to on office benefits. There was even recently a "Return to Office" policy launched only for Americas. But outside of that, this is clear with snacks, office location, and events. I was based out of Tampa and in my almost 3 years I saw the CEO once, and he deflected all questions asked and left the city the same day.
A lot of my feedback is Americas focused but I can confidently say some of these issues are company-wide. (Example, Budapest, and Austin CLEARLY have retention issues, although they are two prioritized locations)
If I were considering working here, whether its Austin, Tampa, London, Singapore, etc. I would stick the time out gain experience and enjoy the benefits offered, while actively looking and earning additional certifications, making new connections, etc to further your career.
If you are looking to work here and have ample experience, I suggest going elsewhere if you can. The job market is tough, so I could see people considering this as "in between" as well.
