Atlassian

Interesting work if you can get onto the right team. Chances to become a full-stack developer and try out some new technologies. Some smart people to learn from, if you can look past the ego it is coming from at the same time. Well-stocked kitchens. I would recommend to a friend, as it has the chances for some nice work and looks like a nice stepping stone to something else in the future.

Getting on the right team can be difficult. Salary is low. Salary details are not shared (and for good reason, as there is a massive difference between salaries for the exact same positions throughout the company). It will usually take sourcing other employment opportunities to discover your true worth and get HR to do anything about it, if you are deemed worthy of keeping.

And while the company considers itself very collaborative, this is taken to the extreme. Unless you are able to self-promote every single thing you do, every single day, then no one will have any idea that you even exist.

Worse of all, though, for me, is the shifting goalposts. Performance reviews are quite a joke, as they entirely depend on which team you work on and how good buddies you are with your Team Lead.

Just doing excellent work is not enough. Even though, yes, you fixed this stupidly outdated and broken process, you failed to blog about it for 3 weeks prior to actually making the change. And 2 people over there had an error this morning and instead of fixing it, had to spend 1 hour figuring out who to blame (when they could have actually read the 1 blog that you did write – though 10 is better than 1, of course!).

Anyway, most of this stems from far too many people drinking the Kool-Aid on a daily basis, which, in my opinion, is caused by the fact that for the majority of people, they have never experienced anything else in their working careers.

Maybe this culture worked for a small startup, but will it really continue to work in the future? Do you want the best people or the loudest people?

I actually enjoy the work and the feelings of accomplishment, but it is definitely not a small company anymore, and all the politics make sure of that.