Taro Logo

Great tech, some downsides

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Airtable for 2 years
December 28, 2023
4.0
RecommendsNegative OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Great pay and perks. The unlimited PTO isn't a sham like at other companies, which expect you to work even more. It's a really flexible work environment.

As a software engineer, this has been by far the most talented team of engineers I've had the chance to work with. The technical challenges are interesting, and I learned a ton from watching some of the smartest developers I've seen tackle these problems.

The codebase has its pros and cons, but in general, there are a lot of really smart people being very deliberate about their development work.

Cons

The information shared by management in all-hands meetings is more like propaganda than an actual business outlook.

This is a bit of an overstatement, but every all-hands meeting is just about trying to spin business metrics to make everything seem fine.

And then, suddenly: layoffs!

Everything settles down, starts to seem fine again.

And then... layoffs!

It's gotten really hard to trust the vision and transparency of the leadership team as the economic environment has shifted.

From a product team perspective, it feels like there's a bit too much process. Not overwhelmingly so, but the weeks we invest into OKR tracking, quarterly planning, etc., don't seem to justify the marginal benefits.

Also, there's an underinvestment in product management.

Existing PMs are overstaffed, and eng teams are often tasked with prioritizing product decisions that we are not really qualified to make.

Advice to Management

Hire PMs

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
5.0
Culture and Values
3.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
2.0
Career Opportunities
4.0
Compensation and Benefits
5.0
Senior Management
2.0

Was this helpful?

Airtable Interview Experiences