Roku

Roku is constantly moving forward; there is always something new and exciting to work on.

Management tends to be quite candid. If you have a question, you'll either get a straight-forward answer or "I wish I could tell you but have been sworn to secrecy." You don't need to do much reading between the lines.

Many intelligent people in engineering are actually focused on engineering rather than inflating their own job titles.

There is very low turnover.

Compensation is very competitive and is automatically adjusted annually to market changes (but never goes down).

People are friendly and eager to help, but you have to ask for it.

Each team is left to make its own technology choices; there's no top-down "you must use language ____."

There's good work-life balance. Most people are working typical daytime hours, and few are working 12-hour days, so the peer pressure to abandon your personal life is non-existent.

The comp philosophy is "you know what to do with your money better than Roku," which results in higher personal comp and less fringe benefits (e.g., no free daycare that everyone pays for but only a fraction use).

If you're looking to climb the title rungs (like L# at Google), you'll be disappointed. Nearly everyone is a Senior Software Engineer.

But don't take this as indicative of consistent compensation across engineering; your compensation is equivalent to your experience and the value you create.

Because there are no title rungs, the path to promotion can be less clear. But if you speak up, ask for what you want, and ask how to get there, then there is plenty of opportunity for advancement.

There is quite a bit of tribal knowledge, and like most wiki-style systems, documentation can be hard to navigate. If you aren't one to speak up and ask questions, you may find it challenging.