Handshake

If you are stuck working with an old tech stack at some random non-tech company, Handshake could be your way into modernizing. The engineering team is so small, you'll be able to get hands-on with a lot of the stack.

Some of the engineers are very talented, and you can learn a lot from them.

For now, there is no RTO.

The previous reviews that are negative are not exaggerating. The recent positive ones are very misleading and are probably mandated.

CEO is not inspiring. I get founded this company and gets emotional, but he needs to move on.

The new CTO probably wants RTO because he seems to dislike Zoom and needs people around him.

I have mixed feelings about the CTO's direct reports. Some managers are good. My current manager is the type to throw you under the bus.

Code quality standards are very low. Some senior engineers have never worked on proper large-scale projects. I think a lot of people join with the intention to use Handshake as a proving ground to move on to something better.

Documentation is confusing; you basically search Slack.

The push to only hire in SF for the core teams is dumb and probably driven by fear. Whoever had that idea is probably trying to show the CEO, "Look, we are here working hard."

Wild West when it comes to planning. Some teams do it well; others just do it by word of mouth and random Google Docs (guess Jira doesn't exist).

Since joining over a year ago, I have never felt stability and worried about being laid off constantly.

Take a look at the CTO's direct reports. Really dig into them. Don’t trust the surveys that show we trust our direct managers. I think they see that, and it forces us to lie. Don’t share survey results with them so you get the truth.