SendGrid

Software Engineer, Backend Interview Experience - Redwood City, California

January 1, 2019

Negative ExperienceNo Offer

Process

I interviewed at RedWood in January 2019. There was a hiring manager phone interview, an engineer phone interview, and a five-round onsite interview. During the onsite interview, we had lunch with the team together in the office.

Questions

They asked medium algorithm questions, and I solved all problems. Since all interviewers were from an Indian background, even though I solved all the algorithm questions during the interview, they did not give me an offer without reason, which was a total waste of my time. So bad!

They are not a diversity company.

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Interview Statistics

The following metrics were computed from 1 interview experience for the SendGrid Software Engineer, Backend role in Redwood City, California.

Success Rate

0%

Pass Rate

SendGrid's interview process for their Software Engineer, Backend roles in Redwood City, California is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.

Experience Rating

Positive0%

Neutral0%

Negative100%

Candidates reported having very negative feelings for SendGrid's Software Engineer, Backend interview process in Redwood City, California.

SendGrid Work Experiences

Mostly good so far but...

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - Great offices - Great culture & values - Awesome perks - Stock performance that is outstanding - Rewarded for good performance - I love my teammates - Lots of opportunities to learn, challenge, and grow - Interesting work - Processes that are good - Sameer & Craig who are great It might be the best decision of my career so far, but for all the good being said, some issues have come up.

Cons: Politics and disingenuity are on the rise. It's often said that the cultural value we're the worst at is the Honest H. Time and time again leadership says to be more honest. But when we give fair, direct feedback to leadership, people get political, and then we're commended to our faces and called bellyachers behind our backs. It's incredibly disingenuous and feels like we're only going downhill from here.

Mostly good so far but...

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - Great offices - Great culture & values - Awesome perks - Stock performance that is outstanding - Rewarded for good performance - I love my teammates - Lots of opportunities to learn, challenge, and grow - Interesting work - Processes that are good - Sameer & Craig who are great It might be the best decision of my career so far, but for all the good being said, some issues have come up.

Cons: Politics and disingenuity are on the rise. It's often said that the cultural value we're the worst at is the Honest H. Time and time again leadership says to be more honest. But when we give fair, direct feedback to leadership, people get political, and then we're commended to our faces and called bellyachers behind our backs. It's incredibly disingenuous and feels like we're only going downhill from here.

Engineering is under appreciated

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great startup perks like a gym, phone, and commute reimbursement, lots of beer flowing, trips to conferences, and games to go all around. They give you anything you want for the workplace like a standing desk, MacBook Airs with Thunderbolt displays, and more. There is also the annual company trip to Mexico that is always unforgettable.

Cons: There is a bias and favoritism felt towards the Colorado office. There are many people who work in engineering that do nothing and are lazy. And the others who work hard are not appreciated at all. It takes HR and management a few resignations to see that they need to give mass promotions and raises so it's unorganized and not based on actual merit. They've gone through a few VPs of Engineering in only 2 years, so the engineering department is always unstable.

Engineering is under appreciated

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great startup perks like a gym, phone, and commute reimbursement, lots of beer flowing, trips to conferences, and games to go all around. They give you anything you want for the workplace like a standing desk, MacBook Airs with Thunderbolt displays, and more. There is also the annual company trip to Mexico that is always unforgettable.

Cons: There is a bias and favoritism felt towards the Colorado office. There are many people who work in engineering that do nothing and are lazy. And the others who work hard are not appreciated at all. It takes HR and management a few resignations to see that they need to give mass promotions and raises so it's unorganized and not based on actual merit. They've gone through a few VPs of Engineering in only 2 years, so the engineering department is always unstable.

Not as cool as you think

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great benefits. Nice coworkers; and an exceptional Executive Team.

Cons: Engineering SDLC is worse than most companies. Managers are too much into metrics and shipping fast, and this promotes bad behavior, and they often lose sight of the bigger picture and push employees to deploy low quality code. Deployment is a mess, and there's no parity between environments if you are lucky to have a development or staging environment at all. It's ironic that a company with a dedicated devops team can't have a consistent devops story.

Not as cool as you think

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great benefits. Nice coworkers; and an exceptional Executive Team.

Cons: Engineering SDLC is worse than most companies. Managers are too much into metrics and shipping fast, and this promotes bad behavior, and they often lose sight of the bigger picture and push employees to deploy low quality code. Deployment is a mess, and there's no parity between environments if you are lucky to have a development or staging environment at all. It's ironic that a company with a dedicated devops team can't have a consistent devops story.

Mostly good so far but...

Software Engineer • Current Employee

Pros: - Great offices - Great culture & values - Awesome perks - Stock performance that is outstanding - Rewarded for good performance - I love my teammates - Lots of opportunities to learn, challenge, and grow - Interesting work - Processes that are good - Sameer & Craig who are great It might be the best decision of my career so far, but for all the good being said, some issues have come up.

Cons: Politics and disingenuity are on the rise. It's often said that the cultural value we're the worst at is the Honest H. Time and time again leadership says to be more honest. But when we give fair, direct feedback to leadership, people get political, and then we're commended to our faces and called bellyachers behind our backs. It's incredibly disingenuous and feels like we're only going downhill from here.

4.0
Mostly good so far but...
Software Engineer • Current Employee
June 12, 2019
Pros: - Great offices - Great culture & values - Awesome perks - Stock performance that is outstanding - Rewarded for good performance - I love my teammates - Lots of opportunities to learn, challenge, and grow - Interesting work - Processes that are good - Sameer & Craig who are great It might be the best decision of my career so far, but for all the good being said, some issues have come up.
Cons: Politics and disingenuity are on the rise. It's often said that the cultural value we're the worst at is the Honest H. Time and time again leadership says to be more honest. But when we give fair, direct feedback to leadership, people get political, and then we're commended to our faces and called bellyachers behind our backs. It's incredibly disingenuous and feels like we're only going downhill from here.

Engineering is under appreciated

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great startup perks like a gym, phone, and commute reimbursement, lots of beer flowing, trips to conferences, and games to go all around. They give you anything you want for the workplace like a standing desk, MacBook Airs with Thunderbolt displays, and more. There is also the annual company trip to Mexico that is always unforgettable.

Cons: There is a bias and favoritism felt towards the Colorado office. There are many people who work in engineering that do nothing and are lazy. And the others who work hard are not appreciated at all. It takes HR and management a few resignations to see that they need to give mass promotions and raises so it's unorganized and not based on actual merit. They've gone through a few VPs of Engineering in only 2 years, so the engineering department is always unstable.

2.0
Engineering is under appreciated
Software Engineer • Former Employee
Anaheim, CA
May 7, 2013
Pros: Great startup perks like a gym, phone, and commute reimbursement, lots of beer flowing, trips to conferences, and games to go all around. They give you anything you want for the workplace like a standing desk, MacBook Airs with Thunderbolt displays, and more. There is also the annual company trip to Mexico that is always unforgettable.
Cons: There is a bias and favoritism felt towards the Colorado office. There are many people who work in engineering that do nothing and are lazy. And the others who work hard are not appreciated at all. It takes HR and management a few resignations to see that they need to give mass promotions and raises so it's unorganized and not based on actual merit. They've gone through a few VPs of Engineering in only 2 years, so the engineering department is always unstable.

Not as cool as you think

Software Engineer • Former Employee

Pros: Great benefits. Nice coworkers; and an exceptional Executive Team.

Cons: Engineering SDLC is worse than most companies. Managers are too much into metrics and shipping fast, and this promotes bad behavior, and they often lose sight of the bigger picture and push employees to deploy low quality code. Deployment is a mess, and there's no parity between environments if you are lucky to have a development or staging environment at all. It's ironic that a company with a dedicated devops team can't have a consistent devops story.

3.0
Not as cool as you think
Software Engineer • Former Employee
March 12, 2018
Pros: Great benefits. Nice coworkers; and an exceptional Executive Team.
Cons: Engineering SDLC is worse than most companies. Managers are too much into metrics and shipping fast, and this promotes bad behavior, and they often lose sight of the bigger picture and push employees to deploy low quality code. Deployment is a mess, and there's no parity between environments if you are lucky to have a development or staging environment at all. It's ironic that a company with a dedicated devops team can't have a consistent devops story.

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