Grafana Labs

SRE Interview Experience

June 6, 2023

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I applied through an employee referral. The process took three weeks.

I got referred and was contacted quickly by HR to have the first talk. After that, there was a talk with the hiring manager, then a take-home exercise, and then a technical interview with the team. After all the interviews, they contacted me saying that I passed, but the position was no longer available, and asked me to do an interview for another position in another team. The joke is, I would have to do everything again, from the first step, so my time and effort were basically wasted. Even worse, after I sent an email saying I wanted to start the process with the new position, they ghosted me. It was very unprofessional.

Questions

You will need knowledge and experience with K8S, Prometheus, and more. The take-home exercise is about developing a small app.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the Grafana Labs SRE role.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

Grafana Labs's interview process for their SRE roles is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for Grafana Labs's SRE interview process.

Grafana Labs Work Experiences

Great culture

Engineering Director • Current Employee

December 28, 2022

Pros: Very inclusive and safe place to work at. Brilliant engineers solving interesting problems. There is a lot of space for directly having an impact

Cons: Still in startup/scaling mode, be prepared to have an open mindset and adapt. There is frequent organizational restructuring.

Engineering Director • Current Employee

December 28, 2022

Pros: Very inclusive and safe place to work at. Brilliant engineers solving interesting problems. There is a lot of space for directly having an impact

Cons: Still in startup/scaling mode, be prepared to have an open mindset and adapt. There is frequent organizational restructuring.

Supportive leadership in a growing corporate startup environment

Senior IT Operations Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: Competent and sincere senior leadership Transparent communication Relaxed atmosphere Remote-first, global company (people don't expect instant responses) Desirable product with promising growth

Cons: Pay is fair but not above average Becoming more corporate as the company grows Promotions can take a while, depending on department

Supportive leadership in a growing corporate startup environment

Senior IT Operations Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: Competent and sincere senior leadership Transparent communication Relaxed atmosphere Remote-first, global company (people don't expect instant responses) Desirable product with promising growth

Cons: Pay is fair but not above average Becoming more corporate as the company grows Promotions can take a while, depending on department

The best job I've ever had

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - My understanding is that everyone at the company receives equity, which is amazing. - Everyone gets 30 days vacation per year, and not like that so called "unlimited" vacation that cuts into your pay. - Senior leadership, managers and individual contributors strive to get everyone to use their vacation. - I've received a raise every year without asking for it. - I've worked here for two years, the first raise was slightly higher than inflation, the second raise was a promotion and was much significantly higher than inflation. - The senior leadership is astounding. - They truly care about the people of the company. - Very transparent. - Regularly held all-hands meetings where anyone can ask them anything. - Work with high caliber people. - My experience is that 99.9% of the engineers are non-junior, probably 90% have noticeable leadership qualities, and I think something like 25% of them could be a highly successful CTO. - In my previous jobs I've found myself to be close to the front of the pack talent-wise. - But at Grafana, it would be a stretch to consider myself middle of the pack. - Being surrounded by so many super-talented people has taught me so much and has made me far more capable. - Everyone works remotely from around the world, and this has many obvious and nuanced benefits. - High level of autonomy. - Managers do not outrank engineers. - In fact, it's more likely to be the other way around. - Grafana is lead by engineers through and through. - Also, I want to say it gives me so much joy to watch our sales team work. - They're high-energy, strategic, and very respectful.

Cons: To me, there are no cons.

The best job I've ever had

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - My understanding is that everyone at the company receives equity, which is amazing. - Everyone gets 30 days vacation per year, and not like that so called "unlimited" vacation that cuts into your pay. - Senior leadership, managers and individual contributors strive to get everyone to use their vacation. - I've received a raise every year without asking for it. - I've worked here for two years, the first raise was slightly higher than inflation, the second raise was a promotion and was much significantly higher than inflation. - The senior leadership is astounding. - They truly care about the people of the company. - Very transparent. - Regularly held all-hands meetings where anyone can ask them anything. - Work with high caliber people. - My experience is that 99.9% of the engineers are non-junior, probably 90% have noticeable leadership qualities, and I think something like 25% of them could be a highly successful CTO. - In my previous jobs I've found myself to be close to the front of the pack talent-wise. - But at Grafana, it would be a stretch to consider myself middle of the pack. - Being surrounded by so many super-talented people has taught me so much and has made me far more capable. - Everyone works remotely from around the world, and this has many obvious and nuanced benefits. - High level of autonomy. - Managers do not outrank engineers. - In fact, it's more likely to be the other way around. - Grafana is lead by engineers through and through. - Also, I want to say it gives me so much joy to watch our sales team work. - They're high-energy, strategic, and very respectful.

Cons: To me, there are no cons.

Great culture

Engineering Director • Current Employee

December 28, 2022

Pros: Very inclusive and safe place to work at. Brilliant engineers solving interesting problems. There is a lot of space for directly having an impact

Cons: Still in startup/scaling mode, be prepared to have an open mindset and adapt. There is frequent organizational restructuring.

5.0
Great culture
Engineering Director • Current Employee
December 28, 2022
Pros: Very inclusive and safe place to work at. Brilliant engineers solving interesting problems. There is a lot of space for directly having an impact
Cons: Still in startup/scaling mode, be prepared to have an open mindset and adapt. There is frequent organizational restructuring.

Supportive leadership in a growing corporate startup environment

Senior IT Operations Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: Competent and sincere senior leadership Transparent communication Relaxed atmosphere Remote-first, global company (people don't expect instant responses) Desirable product with promising growth

Cons: Pay is fair but not above average Becoming more corporate as the company grows Promotions can take a while, depending on department

5.0
Supportive leadership in a growing corporate startup environment
Senior IT Operations Engineer • Current Employee
Springdale, AR
June 20, 2026
Pros: Competent and sincere senior leadership Transparent communication Relaxed atmosphere Remote-first, global company (people don't expect instant responses) Desirable product with promising growth
Cons: Pay is fair but not above average Becoming more corporate as the company grows Promotions can take a while, depending on department

The best job I've ever had

Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - My understanding is that everyone at the company receives equity, which is amazing. - Everyone gets 30 days vacation per year, and not like that so called "unlimited" vacation that cuts into your pay. - Senior leadership, managers and individual contributors strive to get everyone to use their vacation. - I've received a raise every year without asking for it. - I've worked here for two years, the first raise was slightly higher than inflation, the second raise was a promotion and was much significantly higher than inflation. - The senior leadership is astounding. - They truly care about the people of the company. - Very transparent. - Regularly held all-hands meetings where anyone can ask them anything. - Work with high caliber people. - My experience is that 99.9% of the engineers are non-junior, probably 90% have noticeable leadership qualities, and I think something like 25% of them could be a highly successful CTO. - In my previous jobs I've found myself to be close to the front of the pack talent-wise. - But at Grafana, it would be a stretch to consider myself middle of the pack. - Being surrounded by so many super-talented people has taught me so much and has made me far more capable. - Everyone works remotely from around the world, and this has many obvious and nuanced benefits. - High level of autonomy. - Managers do not outrank engineers. - In fact, it's more likely to be the other way around. - Grafana is lead by engineers through and through. - Also, I want to say it gives me so much joy to watch our sales team work. - They're high-energy, strategic, and very respectful.

Cons: To me, there are no cons.

5.0
The best job I've ever had
Senior Software Engineer • Current Employee
July 8, 2022
Pros: - My understanding is that everyone at the company receives equity, which is amazing. - Everyone gets 30 days vacation per year, and not like that so called "unlimited" vacation that cuts into your pay. - Senior leadership, managers and individual contributors strive to get everyone to use their vacation. - I've received a raise every year without asking for it. - I've worked here for two years, the first raise was slightly higher than inflation, the second raise was a promotion and was much significantly higher than inflation. - The senior leadership is astounding. - They truly care about the people of the company. - Very transparent. - Regularly held all-hands meetings where anyone can ask them anything. - Work with high caliber people. - My experience is that 99.9% of the engineers are non-junior, probably 90% have noticeable leadership qualities, and I think something like 25% of them could be a highly successful CTO. - In my previous jobs I've found myself to be close to the front of the pack talent-wise. - But at Grafana, it would be a stretch to consider myself middle of the pack. - Being surrounded by so many super-talented people has taught me so much and has made me far more capable. - Everyone works remotely from around the world, and this has many obvious and nuanced benefits. - High level of autonomy. - Managers do not outrank engineers. - In fact, it's more likely to be the other way around. - Grafana is lead by engineers through and through. - Also, I want to say it gives me so much joy to watch our sales team work. - They're high-energy, strategic, and very respectful.
Cons: To me, there are no cons.

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