Hightouch

Engineering is mostly pretty low-ego, bright folks. Leadership is clear and honest about their priorities, and I appreciate that they don't hedge or make vague false promises. There's a strong appetite for improvement across all dimensions, and the general flatness makes it easy for anyone to contribute anything. My manager does a solid job of balancing drive with realism, and of keeping the team moving without being aggressive. Process is very low and focus is on outcomes. Tons of agency.

There are a handful of folks in leadership who could stand to improve their delivery and empathy skills.

The flatness is double-edged: if you want to advance, you're going to be cutting your own path, and it requires a fair amount of focus, strategy, and personal marketing to stand out. It can be frustrating to feel like you're not getting noticed for merit alone.

Work can be disorganized; and this is not the kind of place with neat, pointed backlogs. There's a fair amount of grindset culture; though I've never felt pressured to work mad hours, it's clear that that's how people earn the shoutouts and the accolades.

Hightouch is, from my perspective, not prioritizing things like DEI, comfy benefits, or emotional meaning/bonding for employees; and they are prioritizing raking in cold hard cash as fast as possible. If you go in expecting and okay with that, you'll be fine.

Try to equalize opportunity for people. It seems like there's a handful of folks you go to first for big opps, internal talks, leading charges, etc. It's disheartening to feel like there's an "in group" that you can't break into.