Confluent

You can work with talented engineers and learn a substantial amount, especially if you're interested in distributed systems.

Pay is decent for a company of its size.

Remote work offers opportunities to travel.

Innovation doesn't go further than striving to fall short of Amazon without company operations blowing up. Earlier, I mentioned there are learning opportunities if you're interested in distributed systems, but those chances are limited by brain-dead operations work.

Politics - Get on the wrong side of certain people, and you're pretty much cooked. Say goodbye to promotion prospects and hope your LeetCode skills haven't gotten too rusty.

Mid-level management is comprised of brain-dead spreadsheet fillers who are paid a quarter million dollars. If AI is advancing to replace developers, let's replace them one time.

Be prepared to handle almost any problem, even if you have never interacted with a particular part of the system or the product, in highly stressful situations. How many times are you willing to sacrifice your weekend for at best a "kudos" email from your co-worker, but in most cases, it's to make sure you're not fired for "lack of ownership".

The benefits, in comparison to other companies, are lackluster.

• Constant shift in priorities
• The team you work on determines whether you work 20-hour weeks or 80-hour weeks.
• Stock is in flux, and now fewer people are invested in the product than before.