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Great culture. Great mission. Interesting work

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Block for 2 years
August 2, 2020
Atlanta, Georgia
5.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

Can't speak for other offices, but pay in Atlanta is top-of-market.

Flexible culture. Work from home is going to be allowed permanently, even after the whole COVID situation is over.

Flexible PTO.

Extensive parental leave.

Good balance in engineering culture between shipping features and paying down tech debt. I think this is an overlooked variable at many companies. At Square, my experience is that careful consideration is paid to the decision between moving quickly to deliver vs. taking time to go back and clean up old messes.

Upward mobility. If you come in as a junior engineer, you don't have to look for another job after two years to find more responsibilities and commensurate compensation increase. Evaluation for promotion is built into the system, and pay increases for promo are considerable, not just token raises.

Worthwhile mission. Square is a company that actually takes its mission of "economic empowerment" seriously. It's not just a payments company or a POS company. It's a company that works hard to deliver the products that small businesses need.

Interesting work. Whatever you're interested in, Square is probably doing it. Nitty-gritty payments code, ML, cryptocurrency, front-end design and engineering, etc.

Room for growth as a company. There's still lots of uncaptured opportunity out there for Square, and the business is actively seeking it out.

Cons

The promotion process is kind of drawn-out and opaque. You work with your manager to put together a promo packet, but then don't hear anything back for at least several weeks.

Company culture is fairly homogenous politically. Some people are outspoken about their political beliefs, but it would probably be somewhat uncomfortable for someone who isn't at least moderately liberal to voice their beliefs.

Not many cons. I plan to be at Square for the long-haul.

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