Checkout.com

The work is technically interesting, and you can learn quite a bit. The company attracts some very talented people.

The company does give a good impression during the recruitment process, but that fell apart shortly after I started. There was a huge amount of pressure and stress created by middle management, who seemed to be focused on looking good to the higher-ups with no regard at all for quality work or the well-being of their engineers.

I didn't quite realize how badly working checkout was affecting me until I resigned.

The office politics that came from above was savage, and I saw fellow engineers and other teams being thrown under the bus by engineering management. They loaded me up with unrealistic deadlines to set me up for personal failure and got aggressive when I tried to push back, yet preached "feel free to push back on deadlines" in team-wide calls. It was clear that the various layers of management above the team were not honest with each other.

A complete disaster and a mental health nightmare. My team regularly raised feelings of burnout and concerns about the quality of work due to the pressure and volume of work being expected, yet our managers did nothing to help this, as that pressure was coming from them.

Another thing is a lack of any investment in the engineers. We asked for one afternoon each month to upskill in something and got told no. At no stage did my manager/s ever discuss career growth or goals. The deadlines set were so tight there was no room for onboarding or investigations.

Overall, the company does not treat its people well at all. This is a very toxic environment from the top down, right through the middle management layers.

I would have happily given feedback, but I was quickly asked to leave shortly after resigning and was not given any opportunity for an exit interview or to give feedback.

In engineering, there are managers who are toxic, and they are holding back the department. The company is starting to get a reputation in the community, and the caliber of engineers you want to hire won't be attracted.

I have moved on and have found a company that treats engineers well, and the difference is night and day. It will take some time for me to build my confidence back up as an engineer and a person because of checkout.