Senior Software Engineer • Former Employee
Pros: It's unclear why over 25% of the company has left now, and sees no sign of slowing down. Engineers, managers, product folks, VPs are all leaving in droves. Why on earth is this!? There are so many good things about the engineering department here:
* Aging tech stack that middle-management is hell-bent on keeping relevant because it keeps them relevant.
* Appear to be working for one of the best companies in FinTech and SF due to constant gaslighting from management gently coercing employees to fill out positive engagement surveys.
* Increase your communication skills by working with departments hiding mediocrity inside of heavy and unnecessary processes.
* Feel good about yourself for participating in faux diversity and inclusion efforts, and then watch as HR executes witch hunts against other departments for fake violations of diversity and inclusion.
* Work-life balance realized by constant Zoom meetings, late-night and weekend work requirements to hit deadlines, and release after failed release after failed release.
Cons: Politics here like you've never seen. Consider that if Ripple is successful, they'll be one of the most powerful companies on Earth. Greed rules here, and managers at all levels will be the first to throw peers and staff under the bus so fast to save their own jobs or butts. Engineers at all levels that are able to play politics and tow the company line derail entire initiatives because they happen to know better for one reason or another over senior engineers. It's a mess because there is no rudder, and all teams are spinning in weird circles trying to either keep their heads down or play political games.
Engineers have little autonomy. Engineers that have been around for many years ignore the processes that newer managers have put up, so they're able to get work done. Otherwise, management constantly tells employees what to work on and when to have it delivered.
Innovation is actively squashed by middle management. Managers that are fearful of new innovations being spawned by the company to help with faster delivery are killed by institutional teams for fear of losing their own jobs. Prisma was created because ODL was unable to deliver quickly and safely. Yet, Prisma got constant pushback because they worked in a different way. No matter that they released many times a week safely and were able to create an entirely new platform – it's a threat to other managers and is fought tooth and nail.
Snakes in leadership at all levels will lie to you directly to your face and then go do other things behind closed doors. There's no other way to explain it. Be careful what you say and who you say it to, or else HR will come and find you.