Pros: The product is fantastic and there are really smart engineers here working on fascinating problems. Top-level culture seems strong and opinionated in ways I believe in. Time off policies are remarkably flexible and I don't feel laden with guilt when I need to use it. Remote work has been surprisingly painless and my teammates have been fantastic to work with. The company cares about effectively balancing COVID concerns with in-office work and has not forced back-to-office mandates. The company's overall success is also definitely a perk. There's an air of positivity and a view that any problems can be figured out or solved. Compensation (at least mine) is competitive especially in light of the recent IPO.

Cons: All the hallmark pains of a rapidly growing company are there. Middle management seems horribly overworked and as a result, it doesn't feel like my management chain cares about me or my success. Numerous weekly one-on-ones have been missed or skipped unilaterally and issues I need escalated are ignored. There's also no effective way to communicate my concerns about my manager either: yearly reviews don't offer a space for upward feedback and there are no skip-level one-on-ones. Generally this doesn't feel intentionally malicious, but more that other issues and people are being prioritized over my needs and a manager's time is the bottleneck. In a similar way, my work is constantly being reprioritized. Work I was told I would get to do the next quarter has, without failure, been changed to a different, usually less desirable project. I also haven't been given the time to learn any systems at depth (many of which are rife with the usual tech debt) before swapping off a project. Again, this is largely out of necessity and not malice, but still drags on me. What's most concerning is there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. The company is continuing to expand at this rapid rate, and the hiring pipeline for managers seems to be bottlenecked. The new CTO has brought even more reprioritization and reorgs, which will hopefully result in more stability, but I'm not holding my breath.

Pros: Marqeta has an insane amount of potential. A fast but generally humane pace, and wonderful coworkers. The reality of impacting the world around you is also huge. Seeing your work reflected all over the place has been really huge for me.

Cons: Maybe lots of companies deal with this, but Marqeta lost a lot of its soul in its growth. The transition from a small, scrappy, startup to a larger company has cost a lot in terms of how it feels to work here, to feel lost in the churn, and to have management see numbers instead of people.

Pros: The list of 'pros' is really long, actually. The basic ones are: - Our office is beautiful, wonderfully situated, easily accessible and stocked with tasty amenities. - Our benefits package(s) seem reasonably good (6% 401k match, standard array of insurance options, (including pet insurance through Trupanion, lol), three weekly catered meals, etc.). - An enjoyable social aspect, including events, happy hours, team outings, and a broad array of interest-specific Slack channels. - A good range of coworker diversity (disclaimer: diversity can always be better) re: age, experience and history range, family-status, etc. The ones which hold more weight are: - Working with great engineers and great managers. - Marqeta is a company of consequence. Every day when I come in, I'm working on things which are blazing the way forward for how the larger payments industry operates. - We have, among the tech org, a cooperative environment. - I am never bored. Every day has new and exciting challenges to work on. - I feel very satisfied with, and supported in, my professional growth at Marqeta. We are supported in learning new skills, approaching problems in new ways, learning new languages.

Cons: - Like many other tech companies, I feel like our hiring process is rough on our applicants as well as on our employees. - Engineering objectives are too driven by the business side. While I feel like my work-life-balance is typically pretty good, I am, and the tech-org generally is, feeling increasing pressure to output.