Pros: Affirm tackles some interesting problems. Performance management standards have historically been lax (although this could be a con for higher achievers).

Cons: During the IPO, Affirm's equity administrator experienced a system malfunction, causing many employees to lose a good chunk of their pre-IPO proceeds. Affirm decided it was not their problem and left employees on their own. Overall, a good company to work for, but I would be skeptical of the true value of any stock-based compensation you're offered.

Pros: If you live to work, then this is the place to be. Compensation is okay, but it's being cut. Essentially, you're earning less as Affirm cuts more and more benefits to bump their stock.

Cons: If you work to live, this is not it. Each person has the workload of two to three people. Management is hypocritical and contradictory. They are frequently the opposite of what they tell us to do. Development is commonly extremely broken and muddy. The company is hitting the runway without maintenance, falling apart while management whips the engineers trying to keep it together. Roles do not matter at this company. Staff engineers contribute to code. Engineer L1s design systems and lead projects without compensation, with the excuse of pushing the team to go beyond their roles when not everyone wants to. And I want to, which says a lot.

Pros: Growth and the opportunities that it creates are the biggest pro of working at Affirm. Since I joined in the last few months, huge wins have been made on the business development and sales sides that suggest this company has what it takes to reach escape velocity. As a software engineer, this makes it easy to understand what we need to build and how my contributions will move the business forward. As important as partnerships are at this company, Affirm remains engineering-focused, likely because of our founder. The benefits package, which feels generous for a startup of this size and profitability, caters toward building knowledge and excellence in all areas of life. Recruiting is top-notch, and I was surprised how well the company hires versus both the big-box tech companies and other hot startups. Having only worked at companies with similar levels of talent, I was happy to not have to compromise here.

Cons: As with most fast-moving startups, there is some technical debt. The fast pace of the business also means there is less time than I would like to explore new technologies for use at the company and for personal growth. Additionally, while many startups win by making simplifying assumptions and avoiding regulation, we are a fintech company. Thus, we make it our competitive edge to deal with all the complexity that finance and regulation create. At times, the nuance created by this can be frustrating.