Pros: + Highly engaged and accessible senior leadership. C-suite makes themselves available for questions from anyone and answers them thoughtfully and honestly. + Strong transparency. People answer hard questions honestly, and strategic company details are not just accessible but actively broadcasted. + Well-thought-out culture. Company emphasizes openness, empowerment, social support, growth, and learning. + Strategic, focused organization. Lots of prioritization going on, and the company feels really in it to build far-and-away the best Open Banking technology out there, and teams think hard about how their work fits into the organization's goals and strategy. I don't mean just nice paper stuff; I mean the company really thinks about and gets ahead of its hurdles instead of handwaving them again. There's a strong sense of purpose and direction. + Strong future: Open Banking/fintech is expected to boom even further, and Plaid is at the forefront, and if you look at publicly available information and analyses of Plaid's future, paired with the company's culture, priorities, and hiring bar, you might find yourself quite optimistic about Plaid's future. Knock on wood, but stonks only go up! + Individualized career growth attention and performance reviews. + Company rewards being thoughtful.

Cons: - Lots of things to do. The transparency means a lot of information. The impactful work means a lot of prioritization and skimming. You have to get really good at staying focused on priorities and cutting out secondary needs, even when they're enjoyable or pressing. - Growing pains. Both technically and organizationally, Plaid is growing fast right now. This means some things are in flux. - Empowerment means responsibility. You're expected to really take ownership and find opportunities to contribute impactfully. I've never worked anywhere where "you own your career" has rang truer than at Plaid. - Lots of keep-the-lights-on work; and some teams and Engineering Managers have a lot on their plate. - Company is super-social. You need to get used to talking to people, asking questions, etc., as a primary learning strategy. Formal processes and tools get a lot of love, but they don't keep up with the growth nearly as well as people do. So you gotta really embrace 1:1's and coffee chats.

Pros: - We have an amazing, friendly team with an incredibly mature eng culture that balances pragmatism and thoughtful design. I am constantly impressed by the caliber of my coworkers and the quality of the output. - Because we are an infrastructure company, engineers have the opportunity to drive the product forward and help determine the product priorities, which is a unique opportunity. - High level of ownership across the different functions. Employees really care about the product. - Meaningful technical & business problems that can only be solved by collaboration between teams. - Management is receptive to feedback. - Reasonable work hours (flex) & vacation that people actually take!

Cons: - The regular share of fires and unplanned work, but this is pretty normal for a startup of our size. The team is getting better at being proactive about potential issues. - The feedback cycle for employees is in the early stages and needs to be formalized and regularized. - Office is a little cramped right now, but we are moving to an amazing new facility in September.

Pros: There is no limit to your progression.

Cons: The time difference can be a con at times, especially when you have to collaborate with colleagues in different regions.