Software Engineer • Current Employee
Pros: The office in San Francisco is nice. People are trying to do the right things from a technical perspective. There are a lot of nice, well-intentioned ideas at work here.
Cons: Career growth, HR is cruel, and the culture at the company is fake nice.
This is not a meritocracy. I don't even know how to begin to explain, other than starting with the simple fact that people do not get promoted on the basis of doing good work. In fact, people don't really get promoted at all. What's really happening is managers playing politics with each other all day. If you want to get a promotion, you have to have the right manager. Chances are, if *that*'s the kind of manager you have, then you have to be extremely obedient, for lack of a better word. Also, most of the good engineers have started to leave.
HR is straight up scary. It's rare that you'd ever have to deal with them, but if you do, they can be so mean and insensitive. Basically, it's a kafkaesque, bureaucratic nightmare, with a little hint of a sadistic streak. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's honestly how I feel. You know that feeling you get when someone enjoys having power over you and causing pain? That's how you feel when talking to HR, at Credit Karma.
The last thing is that the company has really exploded in size and ambition lately, and it really feels a lot different. This used to actually be a nice place. Now it's fake nice. There's the managers playing politics, and you start to see the beginning of a lot of doublespeak. There are a lot of big projects, which has created a really cutthroat, nasty attitude under the surface. This is not the kind of place where you can be yourself, unless that person is a robot and useful to their manager. Also, work speak is the absolute worst when it gets used as a tool to hide meanness.