Databricks

• Pay, benefits, and stock
• Some extremely intelligent folks (mostly outside India, though)

• Despite the company's technical reputation, the actual technical learning is surprisingly limited. A lot of the work feels like grunt work, while the WLB can still be poor. Over time, you risk losing technical leverage. I have seen very capable engineers gradually become quiet and disengaged here, staying just for money.

• The bigger problem is the promotion and performance culture. There is significant politics around ratings, feedback, and promotions. Senior people's perception of you can matter more than the actual work you deliver. Power flows from top to bottom, and you should not assume that +1/+2 leadership will advocate for you simply because you are doing good work. Feedbacks are mostly incentive-driven. The same senior people evaluating you have their own promotion, visibility, and organizational interests first.

• I have seen situations where mid/senior management appears to manage people, promotions, and even exits in ways that support their own growth and positioning. The impact on engineers below them can be severe, and people end up stressed, demotivated, and in some cases genuinely traumatized by the experience.

• "Impact" is also misunderstood here. In practice it means how well it is acknowledged by senior leadership, not how visible your work is, and not just what you actually built or solved. The career ladder exists, but manager and leadership perception can outweigh what is written in it.

• Also, for those unfamiliar with the rating system: CME, not MME, is the lowest rating here. Once your performance perception drops, recovering is not possible.

My biggest warning is for junior engineers. Your early career should compound technical skills, ownership, and mentorship. Be careful about spending those years learning organizational politics instead. For L5+ engineers, the equation may be different because you enter with more leverage. Don't join purely because of the Databricks brand. Understand the exact team, especially managers, carefully first.

80% of the middle management in India is completely bad. I can not suggest anything good here. Slowly the company will go on a downtrend.