Rivian

It is a good company with a great product. The company reflects good potential, with strong backing from Amazon and clear future business plans. The pay is good, but offices are only located in California.

The company hired some people poorly during 2021, around the time it went public. They likely became overconfident and pushed too many interviews with a limited number of interviewers.

I worked on a team where the engineering manager did not understand any technical details. There were two additional staff engineers in a similar situation, and they were really weak. You would want to pull your hair out trying to explain simple architecture, even after they spent a year.

Additionally, they showed no interest in the work and displayed no responsibility. They offered no help and had a tendency to blame other people. I would prefer banging my head against the wall rather than talking to them.

These types of employees are a major problem and create a bad work experience. The fact that they hired such people at higher levels is a serious red flag. Furthermore, there is no sign of these people ever being fired.

As a software engineer, the problems we are working on are not complex enough. Software engineering is not part of the core business and becomes secondary. The company does not focus on quality hires on the software side, including managers. It also does not deal with poor hires in a timely manner.

Another important point: the company is a lot about showmanship in terms of work culture. Internally, managers and leadership are really toxic. They take advantage of people and try to overwork them.

My manager lied to my face when I did not receive support to complete a project and went to her boss. She was clearly being lazy and did not care about completing the project. She never updated me on priorities and would ask the same things we had already discussed many times. This is basically a tactic to impose power on people.

I tried to switch jobs internally after a bad experience with the previous manager. It turns out we have to inform our current manager before we even interview with another team internally. This does not seem right to me.

Hire carefully, especially on the software side. Not only does the engineer have to be strong, but they should also be a good team player and create a good experience for people around them. If you have a colleague who is a super idiot and you would want to avoid talking to, this impacts productivity and efficiency really badly.

Mistakes happen, and there are always bad hires. Sometimes we make a good hire and spoil them with benefits and high pay.

It is really important to deal with bad performers swiftly and fire them. You don't have to burden yourself with culture and woke stuff. Focus on productivity, efficiency, and building great products.

You don't have to overcomplicate things for yourself by focusing too much on culture. This is, in the end, a business, and you should do things that are good for business. That said, companies with a bad work culture generally don't survive long.