Pros: Great people, very cooperative. Constant encouragement to grow. Flexible work hours. Independence to work on what you want to. You can raise any concern or opinion. Frequent outings and fun activities. However, I see a lot of process controls coming into play, which can be both good and bad at times.

Cons: Same kinds of challenges you see in a startup company. Needs a little stability in the development platform.

Pros: - Arcade - Drinking - There are a handful of cool people.

Cons: The self-reviews are soul-smushing. Maybe I'm just sensitive, but having to rate myself 1-5 on 5 traits and write an essay about why I deserve a promotion, even if your manager has already decided to not put you up to the hiring committee, just feels farcical and dehumanizing. I think management is awful at assessing who's a good engineer and who's not. I had a string of bad managers (or managers who were forced to be bad due to requirements placed on them, unclear). I had about 5 managers in less than 2 years, most of whom were focused on "getting out the door faster." I worked in a vertical that made no money, so regardless of how good my code was, I wasn't seen as on a "star team" because the product side couldn't make it work. Obsession with Google/Twitter is true. The CTO admitted to reading private slacks. Engineers in general would be careful what they'd say on slack because they were concerned about privacy, which I think had a real "chilling effect" on the ability to acknowledge management problems. I once had a manager rewrite my API calling code into 15 classes + 15 interfaces "for reusability" (introducing bugs in the process). The code was never reused because the vertical was basically shut down, but he was "from Google," so I guess I'm wrong.... When I left, I got more than 30k more. They didn't even try to match my offer. I understand why; I called it like I saw it, and that style really didn't fit in there.

Pros: Comp is extremely high; it's literally the only reason people stay. If you've been here over 3 years, it's unlikely any company will pay you a base at the level Credit Karma will. Now that revenue certainty is higher and international expansion is underway, at least the IPO is just around the corner.

Cons: You have to put on a fake smile and kowtow to the senior leadership, almost all of which are in roles they have no business being in. In my department, we had to research whether the new harassment disclosure laws would require prior settlements to be made known.