Klarna

It is a good company if you are just starting out (1-2 YoE). Used it as a stepping stone to gain some experience and leave the moment you get the salary that you deserve.

I had a 5-star review initially that I deleted to replace with this one. I believed this company was right for me, and it did seem like it in the beginning. But after one year, I found out that we are just numbers.

From time to time, the CEO wakes up in the morning and shuts down projects, putting people in the "Competency pool," or simply laying them off. During this one year, there were three rounds of layoffs. You are always anxious about losing your job, regardless of your level.

The final straw was their new promotion process, which essentially offers no salary increases except when you get a level promotion (from regular to senior, or from senior to staff). This means that if you are already a senior, you have to be promoted to L4 (staff), a decision approved by the CTO, which is quite difficult to achieve.

On top of that, they decided to unify salaries by location, meaning all L2 engineers in Barcelona should have the same salary. It feels like communism. Additionally, salaries are average at best, so if you are experienced, I would recommend avoiding this company.

You are powerless, and the CEO is the only one making the decisions, so there is not much you can do. Maybe try to influence this instead of being just a group of yes-men.