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Don't be a moth; this shiny company will burn you

Python Software Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Revolut for 1 year
June 6, 2020
London, England
1.0
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

The salary and the perks are very good.

They have someone in charge of inclusion and diversity.

Engineers have a lot of autonomy.

Cons

One of the fundamental problems of Revolut engineering ironically lies in the mantra plastered all around office walls and chats: "get it done".

Those three words have become an excuse to cut all the corners and take all the shortcuts. That results in massive technical debt and huge security gaps that no one is trying to resolve.

Most engineers are constantly creating new systems under the immense pressure of tight KPIs. These KPIs are now for every quarter, and failure to perform will always be seen as an individual's fault and never as a structural problem. People are under the constant fear of getting fired, or in the best case, just stressed and overworked.

Technical recruitment has been made under the terrible assumption that any programmer knows or can learn system design or infrastructure. In reality, only a handful of people are taking care of it, so they spend all their time firefighting instead of improving things, which in turn results in a big turnover.

The CTO does not seem to be cut out for the job. He micromanages individual projects but completely ignores vast parts of engineering. He takes decisions alone, does not listen, and will never change his mind once set. He will not acknowledge things he does not understand. He is arrogant and patronizing.

There is no middle management: just team leads and senior figures. Because of that, teams have no coordination, sometimes doing the same work twice, heading into completely different directions, or having mismatched expectations from each other.

Developers don't have the right tools to work with. For instance, the company uses Bitbucket and TeamCity, which are a daily waste of time because of a lack of features and frequent outages. Everyone frequently complains about it, but the issue hasn't even been acknowledged by senior management.

Even though someone is in charge of inclusion and diversity, and they claim to be against harassment and bullying, it's just for show. People with hurtful behavior are promoted or left in senior positions.

Finally, just look at the Wired articles about Revolut. Everything you'll read is true.

Advice to Management

Acknowledge hurtful behaviors (especially from yourselves). Do not promote and celebrate bullies. Hire real managers.

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