Monzo

Software Engineer Interview Experience - London, United Kingdom

September 12, 2019

Negative ExperienceGot Offer

Process

I applied online. The process took two months. It was very unprofessional, unorganised, and had a false sense of transparency. I inquired about Monzo's fraud rules leaking online recently, and they just wouldn't answer the question. I wanted to know if the bank would still be around in a month or two, and they declined to answer. I told them I saw their device connection, high money transfer, and large inbound and outbound faster payment rules all leaked online, and what they are doing about it. They just declined to answer if I would have a job a month or two after joining as they didn't seem sure the bank was around.

Questions

They asked me if I would be able to work over the weekends as well as during the week. 1 Answer

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 18 interview experiences for the Monzo Software Engineer role in London, United Kingdom.

Success Rate

6%

Pass Rate

Monzo's interview process for their Software Engineer roles in London, the United Kingdom is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive33%

Neutral33%

Negative33%

Candidates reported having mixed feelings for Monzo's Software Engineer interview process in London, United Kingdom.

Monzo Work Experiences

Building the rocketship while trying to fly it at the same time

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Bristol, England

November 28, 2017

Pros: Exciting and demanding work where you are expected to be great at what you do. There's a real sense of achievement and purpose within the team. The company as a whole is very directed and focused on building the bank. There's a strong internal culture and community and it's easy to make friends. The remuneration package comes with lots of stock option and everyone in the company gets options. Flexible hours and relaxed in office policy. Hyper growth is super exciting.

Cons: They go hand in hand with the pros - it's a startup that is still on its launchpad - achieving profitability is the big sword of Damocles above and that is a constant driver. Its very busy and sometimes it is difficult to carve out time to ask questions or to get training. You need to be quite self sufficient to work in some teams. Pay is below market rate (you get stock). Hyper growth is painful sometimes.

Building the rocketship while trying to fly it at the same time

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Bristol, England

November 28, 2017

Pros: Exciting and demanding work where you are expected to be great at what you do. There's a real sense of achievement and purpose within the team. The company as a whole is very directed and focused on building the bank. There's a strong internal culture and community and it's easy to make friends. The remuneration package comes with lots of stock option and everyone in the company gets options. Flexible hours and relaxed in office policy. Hyper growth is super exciting.

Cons: They go hand in hand with the pros - it's a startup that is still on its launchpad - achieving profitability is the big sword of Damocles above and that is a constant driver. Its very busy and sometimes it is difficult to carve out time to ask questions or to get training. You need to be quite self sufficient to work in some teams. Pay is below market rate (you get stock). Hyper growth is painful sometimes.

Great company, I hope they start making more money soon

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Lots of pros, fun environment, intelligent people, CEO who actually knows what he's doing

Cons: Sometimes can feel as though salary is slightly below what other banks provide

Great company, I hope they start making more money soon

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Lots of pros, fun environment, intelligent people, CEO who actually knows what he's doing

Cons: Sometimes can feel as though salary is slightly below what other banks provide

Engineering: Nice, calm place to work with cool problems and really supportive folks

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Just to flag before I start: Most of the negative reviews seem to be from COps, which is honestly like a different world to the rest of the bank (they even have separate people teams and policies etc) - take from that what you will, and if you're an engineer you don't need to worry about them: - Honestly one of the nicest internal cultures I've ever had, always a cool person to talk to about something interesting, I distinctly remember spending over an hour talking to an engineer out of the blue about some things when we just happened to be in the same part of the building - Problems are pretty cool, nothing really "at planet scale" but at enough scale where it still matters (millions of customers etc) - Lots of freedom, I was never, ever required to work on a specific thing, they trust engineers to use their best judgement - Surprisingly little bureaucracy for a bank, I made some changes to production on the side to improve things I cared about and all I had to do was get the PR approved in GitHub

Cons: - Pay isn't great and is a huge point of contention internally (L3 caps out at about £100k a year), and you should not expect to get even close to Google or Apple packages. The stock is pretty poor, and you can expect to receive less than 100k of stock in your 4 year grant.

Engineering: Nice, calm place to work with cool problems and really supportive folks

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Just to flag before I start: Most of the negative reviews seem to be from COps, which is honestly like a different world to the rest of the bank (they even have separate people teams and policies etc) - take from that what you will, and if you're an engineer you don't need to worry about them: - Honestly one of the nicest internal cultures I've ever had, always a cool person to talk to about something interesting, I distinctly remember spending over an hour talking to an engineer out of the blue about some things when we just happened to be in the same part of the building - Problems are pretty cool, nothing really "at planet scale" but at enough scale where it still matters (millions of customers etc) - Lots of freedom, I was never, ever required to work on a specific thing, they trust engineers to use their best judgement - Surprisingly little bureaucracy for a bank, I made some changes to production on the side to improve things I cared about and all I had to do was get the PR approved in GitHub

Cons: - Pay isn't great and is a huge point of contention internally (L3 caps out at about £100k a year), and you should not expect to get even close to Google or Apple packages. The stock is pretty poor, and you can expect to receive less than 100k of stock in your 4 year grant.

Building the rocketship while trying to fly it at the same time

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Bristol, England

November 28, 2017

Pros: Exciting and demanding work where you are expected to be great at what you do. There's a real sense of achievement and purpose within the team. The company as a whole is very directed and focused on building the bank. There's a strong internal culture and community and it's easy to make friends. The remuneration package comes with lots of stock option and everyone in the company gets options. Flexible hours and relaxed in office policy. Hyper growth is super exciting.

Cons: They go hand in hand with the pros - it's a startup that is still on its launchpad - achieving profitability is the big sword of Damocles above and that is a constant driver. Its very busy and sometimes it is difficult to carve out time to ask questions or to get training. You need to be quite self sufficient to work in some teams. Pay is below market rate (you get stock). Hyper growth is painful sometimes.

4.0
Building the rocketship while trying to fly it at the same time
Software Engineer • Current Employee
Bristol, England
November 28, 2017
Pros: Exciting and demanding work where you are expected to be great at what you do. There's a real sense of achievement and purpose within the team. The company as a whole is very directed and focused on building the bank. There's a strong internal culture and community and it's easy to make friends. The remuneration package comes with lots of stock option and everyone in the company gets options. Flexible hours and relaxed in office policy. Hyper growth is super exciting.
Cons: They go hand in hand with the pros - it's a startup that is still on its launchpad - achieving profitability is the big sword of Damocles above and that is a constant driver. Its very busy and sometimes it is difficult to carve out time to ask questions or to get training. You need to be quite self sufficient to work in some teams. Pay is below market rate (you get stock). Hyper growth is painful sometimes.

Great company, I hope they start making more money soon

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Lots of pros, fun environment, intelligent people, CEO who actually knows what he's doing

Cons: Sometimes can feel as though salary is slightly below what other banks provide

5.0
Great company, I hope they start making more money soon
Software Engineer • Former Employee
May 3, 2020
Pros: Lots of pros, fun environment, intelligent people, CEO who actually knows what he's doing
Cons: Sometimes can feel as though salary is slightly below what other banks provide

Engineering: Nice, calm place to work with cool problems and really supportive folks

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Just to flag before I start: Most of the negative reviews seem to be from COps, which is honestly like a different world to the rest of the bank (they even have separate people teams and policies etc) - take from that what you will, and if you're an engineer you don't need to worry about them: - Honestly one of the nicest internal cultures I've ever had, always a cool person to talk to about something interesting, I distinctly remember spending over an hour talking to an engineer out of the blue about some things when we just happened to be in the same part of the building - Problems are pretty cool, nothing really "at planet scale" but at enough scale where it still matters (millions of customers etc) - Lots of freedom, I was never, ever required to work on a specific thing, they trust engineers to use their best judgement - Surprisingly little bureaucracy for a bank, I made some changes to production on the side to improve things I cared about and all I had to do was get the PR approved in GitHub

Cons: - Pay isn't great and is a huge point of contention internally (L3 caps out at about £100k a year), and you should not expect to get even close to Google or Apple packages. The stock is pretty poor, and you can expect to receive less than 100k of stock in your 4 year grant.

4.0
Engineering: Nice, calm place to work with cool problems and really supportive folks
Software Engineer • Former Employee
April 29, 2022
Pros: Just to flag before I start: Most of the negative reviews seem to be from COps, which is honestly like a different world to the rest of the bank (they even have separate people teams and policies etc) - take from that what you will, and if you're an engineer you don't need to worry about them: - Honestly one of the nicest internal cultures I've ever had, always a cool person to talk to about something interesting, I distinctly remember spending over an hour talking to an engineer out of the blue about some things when we just happened to be in the same part of the building - Problems are pretty cool, nothing really "at planet scale" but at enough scale where it still matters (millions of customers etc) - Lots of freedom, I was never, ever required to work on a specific thing, they trust engineers to use their best judgement - Surprisingly little bureaucracy for a bank, I made some changes to production on the side to improve things I cared about and all I had to do was get the PR approved in GitHub
Cons: - Pay isn't great and is a huge point of contention internally (L3 caps out at about £100k a year), and you should not expect to get even close to Google or Apple packages. The stock is pretty poor, and you can expect to receive less than 100k of stock in your 4 year grant.

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