Pros: Free food and a new campus that's just been built.

Cons: The middle management, especially the directors who have been at Roku for five plus years, do not have Roku's best interest in mind. Anthony creates a "What Makes a Great Manager at Roku" in Confluence and lists having Roku's best interest in mind as a bullet item. However, the middle managers are more interested in looking good to Anthony rather than releasing product with high quality. Engineers who have high quality in mind but need to ruffle feathers to ensure quality are looked down upon as not collaborative. Some team managers hire people they have worked with in the past, who are more like minions to them rather than people suitable for the jobs. These minions are given first priority on bonus, compensation increases, promotions, stock grants, and better seating when they move to the new campus. These benefits are not based on how valuable they are as Roku employees, but how much of a "minion" and subservient they are to middle management. This is what counts for compensation increases and better seating in the new campus. Anthony is not aware of this. These same managers say Anthony is a brutal, dictatorial leader behind his back, yet seem to suck up to him in front. Anthony is therefore oblivious of this. Anthony is a visionary leader with great insights into the industry. True, he can be fixated at times, but his guidance has always been a good thing in projects. However, he does not see through the vile behavior of his reports. Anthony has high IQ but low EQ because, though he founded a great company, he does not see through vile behavior from the directors who have worked at Roku for more than 5 years. Unfortunately, the engineers who feel this way are too scared to go and talk to Anthony Woods.

Pros: The culture is open; discussions are welcome. Individual contributions are valued. Freedom and responsibility at its finest.

Cons: Promoting engineers to management comes with a cost: not all good engineers are good managers right away. Additional training may be required.

Pros: The quality of lunch is absolutely amazing. Each rise in Glassdoor rating corresponds to getting a new caterer. Good food makes people happy. Los Gatos neighborhood is equally amazing. There's very little traffic. You'll always find plenty of empty parking spots at Roku throughout the day. Roku feels like a mini-Netflix without the competitiveness and stress of Netflix. We are occupying their old building, and you can still see remnants of Netflix here. It's also just a block from Netflix, so it's relatively easy to visit them if you know someone there. Any random recruiter there is also happy to eat lunch with Roku employees; just shoot them a LinkedIn request. You can easily take a beautiful short stroll or run at the Los Gatos Creek Trail, which many employees do during lunch time. Roku's salary is one of the highest in the valley, though obviously not as high as Netflix. Employees get an amazing number of Roku options, albeit of unknown value at the time of hire. As another reviewer pointed out, Roku is like a Midwest company. People are very laid back. You come into work, and you leave work at work, period. There's no performance review, so it's stress-free and easy to do some work, have long coffee breaks with your coworkers, and get paid. Loyalty and tenure really pay big time in this company. In fact, there are so many old-timers who do minimal work, and they get to rest and vest comfortably. As long as you stay quiet and don't rock the boat, you'll have a very successful tenure at Roku. There is a lot of freedom to do what you want to do, partly because most managers are quite dated and don't have much clue about what employees are really doing. Also, Roku gives really big, fancy titles, several levels above your previous job, which makes us feel great about ourselves.

Cons: No 401K matching and subpar plans with Fidelity. No diversity program, no MLK, no daycare, no culture. There is no manager training, no employee development, no personal improvement, no educational program, no open office hours. Consistent with other reviewers, health insurance is below subpar. Roku recently switched insurance, but the new one has the same high deductibles and high costs as the previous insurance company. It is true that you get an amazing number of options. But over the last few years the strike price has risen by mere pennies. A company that takes over 10 years to rise to only a billion dollar valuation is bad news for mid-stage investors and employees alike, so unless you joined a decade ago the options are worth close to nothing. True that there is a big scramble to catch up to competition, but the gap is only getting wider and wider. Roku's big chance has long passed and it's just a matter of time before big competition like Amazon clobbers Roku with cheaper and better products. Roku is very top-down and employees have very little ways of propping up their ideas and opinions upwards. Unlike Netflix, there is not really a culture to speak of, and Roku employees in general lack pride, lack passion, and treat Roku like a government job. 9 to 5 and people go home. The HR says there's no performance review because the CEO hates it. The reality is that the CEO, all the way downwards, is allergic to changes and criticisms. There is no way to provide feedback upwards without the fear of retaliation. Those who try to rock the boat to change tend to not last very long. A recurring theme is that there will be no raises or promotions until someone threatens to quit or actually quits. Not surprisingly, Roku's attrition rate is one of the highest in the valley.