MongoDB

There's more autonomy for a company of 4000+ employees than I expected. I believe the executive team is top-notch and making smart decisions to keep MongoDB growing for the next 10-20+ years.

Product is widely loved by users, and they've addressed many product deficiencies that got in the way of the product being used in critical applications in the most demanding companies.

The sales organization is a machine--very strict adherence to a sales methodology, which makes it great for people newer to sales or those who haven't worked at a company with a strong methodology. It most certainly helps the sales org scale, even if it does make people feel like just a cog in the machine.

They do a decent job of promoting from within instead of hiring managers externally.

Salary is below market. They will insist you'll make your money on the stock, which might have been true during the good times up until late 2021. But since the market downturn, it's hard for them to argue the stock will outperform others while keeping salaries on the low side.

Some parts of the company are more toxic than others depending on the leaders. Sure, every company is like this. But when people in one org are generally really happy while those in other orgs are not, that's an executive leadership problem.

There are opportunities to make lateral moves, but they're very strict about it having to be in your individualized growth plan. If not, you're stuck dealing with your toxic management in your org while you work that out in your IGP, or you can just leave the company.

A lot of old-timers are still around, which can be a good sign that the company's worth staying at despite changes. However, it feels like a lot of these old-timers have just been moved into less important roles that sound important but are really just overhead. They convince themselves they were a part of what made MongoDB successful and know what it takes to keep MongoDB successful, so they're reluctant to listen to any ideas from newer employees.

If you want a place where you mostly just do what you're told, it's an okay place to work. But unless you're in a very senior role, you're not going to be able to put your own stamp on things.

I think the company lacks a person with visionary tech leadership. It feels like the company is content with finding ways to just incrementally grow cloud consumption on their hosted platform and not coming out with any bold new products. This can make it hard to get excited about the tech.

They hire a significant percentage of their staff in India for cost savings reasons, which can make collaboration difficult. It's been a while since I've worked at a company that intentionally hired in low-cost areas for cost-savings reasons. I thought most tech companies moved away from offshoring practices after the late 2000s. Communications is a challenge, and I have to do a lot of re-work of collateral that's meant to be public-facing because of grammatical errors.

Be bolder about innovating. Don't be afraid to push long-tenured people out of the business or into a role where their head doesn't get too big.

Don't give the sales org a pass on DEI initiatives. Too much of the sales org is made up of white males, and that doesn't seem to have improved in recent years.