Pluspunten
The major thing this company has going for it is the people. This is an absolute wonderful place to work in social terms. In exception of some of the upper management, people in this company tend to be extremely friendly and fun-loving such that work events tend to be the right combination of productive and fun. This is very much a “work hard, play hard” company and they are strict but fair in that. I will miss almost everyone I came into contact with and have a load of fond memories of my time here.
Minpunten
This is where some of the friendliness described above starts to feel hollow. Everyone likes to put on a show about how we’re more friendly and fun-loving than your average corporation and praise our work culture, but how much that is true in my opinion depends very strongly on what position you are working in and how valuable you are to the company. In other words, we are more or less exactly like your average, business first workplace. Now, I normally wouldn’t complain about a business putting business first, but after all the fanfare and talk about how we are different, I do find it annoying we have to get people’s hopes up and postulate like that. I’m not going to go too much into detail about exactly what benefits were lost for our team or how we are paid the absolute bare minimum legally allowed for the position (with the first question in the interview being more of a statement that there will be no haggling for wage). I feel like those things have been talked about in other reviews. To those points I will just say, everyone on our team has a second job so be prepared to search for another one after you sign on here. Rather, my major issue with this company come from a broader disregard and lack of transparency towards anyone working in this position. Just take a look at some of the empty responses given to other reviews from this position (unless they’ve been edited by now I suppose). Aside from being totally out of contact with other teams, so that our monotonous job also feels arbitrary in that we don’t know why we’re spending hours looking up diapers or cucumbers, when talking to higher ups about our concerns, we are often condescended to or treated like children. I haven’t felt so cheerily deflected or not taken seriously since I graduated high school. In fact, it is an open secret they have already tried to outsource our team at one point but couldn’t since it was still slightly too complex of a role. When complaints were brought up about our position one higher up just told us “If you don’t like it, just quit.” This feeling that our teams concerns are nothing more than annoying or an inconvenience for the otherwise cheerful atmosphere on other teams is what upsets me most of all, considering it is also extremely inconvenient to have to work another job as soon as I get home just to barely make rent and eat Top Ramen for dinner most nights. Frankly speaking, to upper management our team is a means to get the most menial and uninteresting work out of the way for as cheaply as possible. As for our closer peers, when talked to one on one, most of them say that they sympathize with our position and that something should be done. Some people when speaking candidly have advised me and others to leave the company, and that the positions we are supposed to theoretically move into are simply filled. This is annoying, since during my hiring process, many of the questions asked revolved around what positions I’d like to be transferred to after my time as a DA. This gave the impression the role would be a sort of hazing before moving on to something more financially sustainable. The whole reason I took a job with such horrific pay was for this potential for growth. Finding out this growth isn’t there is extremely disappointing since the role itself teaches you zero applicable skills for other jobs, meaning somehow you are now also expected to find time to learn those skills on your own time. The narrative that Data Associate is a temporary role and that many people move into prominence from that position within the company is often repeated. I think to say this is intentionally dishonest is a step too far, however these people tend to be from a time when the company was smaller and more flexible. Most DA’s I’ve spoken to in the process of moving up have either been constantly delayed in that process, or just told that an external candidate had a better skill set. I wouldn’t label it a dead end job since the possibility to move up does exist, however be warned it is a road paved with frustration. This is more or less the general feeling on this team. I wouldn’t say anyone is strictly lying to the DA team, however there is a definite lack of communication, and in general people just don’t care about some upset minimum wage workers they see as whiney kids that will just be replaced after they inevitably leave. Everyone is too busy being excited about how their shiny new startup is finally really catching traction and pushing the competition out of the market. I really and genuinely wish I could share in that enthusiasm, but at the moment I feel about as connected to what we do as the gardeners at Apple might feel proud of the new iPhone. I want to be clear this review is in no way intended to smear this company, as I do honestly like the company and wish them the best, but when it feels like you’re being left behind in the process or that some of the progress is due to your team being more or less a cost saving exercise, you really just feel left out. Rather than us all working together to make this work, I feel like I’m being underpaid to create someone else's dream. I think that really is at the heart of the disappointment I feel here because with such amazing people to work with every day I was pretty excited for this company. Now I’m planning to leave at the first possibility that comes up, as I literally can’t be offered less in terms of pay or experience. Summary: The pay is minimum wage, there are no skills learned in this job besides some Excel, there are as good as no opportunities to advance from this position anymore, and the company not only treats us as disposable but are actively trying to replace us according to rumors. The people are nice but really, there’d not much here for you and at the end of your first year you will have nothing to show for your efforts. You may as well go into a coma for a year and at least save yourself the stress of knowing what it’s like to work a full week and not be able to afford rent in someone’s living room in SF. Disclaimer: I will say they’ve changed who is in charge of our team recently and so far it seems promising, however I don’t feel comfortable giving real feedback based on his leadership after such a short time.
