Netflix

Surrounded by incredibly talented engineers and brilliant ideas.

Outstanding pay and benefits.

In a nutshell, your Netflix experience boils down to your direct manager. Managers are almighty dictators reinforcing a pervasive culture of fear at Netflix. I was originally hired by a different leader with whom I had the opportunity to connect and vet. But everything changed when I joined; my manager was someone I hadn't had a single conversation with during the hiring process.

If your manager is an empathetic leader invested in your experience and growth, then read no further. But if your manager is anything like mine - a recently promoted IC with absolutely no training/experience in leadership, expect to be overly micromanaged.

Expect to be humiliated and treated disrespectfully in the name of candidness over kindness. In a one-on-one conversation, my manager snapped at me when I was about to speak (I wasn't interrupting) and asked me to repeat what they just said.

Expect to not have any communication for weeks on end and receive feedback out of the blue that takes you by complete surprise. Expect to have the culture memo weaponized against you.

Expect to not have any allies. Any attempts to move to a different team that could be a better fit will be thwarted by internal politics. Seeking help from HRBP is as futile as denying climate change.

At this point, my only hope is a major re-org, but I wouldn't wish this manager on anybody. Having worked in the industry for over a decade at different sized companies, I've had all kinds of managers. This is the first time I feel psychologically unsafe.

Is there a point?