Snowflake

The compensation is, frankly, outstanding. Base salary is already competitive, and RSUs + bonus can push your total comp into the stratosphere if the stock is performing well.

Some incredibly smart ICs work here – you can learn a lot from peers (if you’re lucky with your team).

The brand name is strong on your resume.

Forcing Poznań hires to relocate or commute to Warsaw for office work is irrational and completely disregards both talent location and work-life balance.

Direct managers routinely ignore serious issues, such as team members clearly holding down two jobs or delivering minimal value. Even when this is surfaced with clear feedback, it gets brushed aside.

On-call is unpaid unless you’re actively paged, meaning you’re blocking your life without any compensation just for being on standby. This feels exploitative.

IC4s (and even strong IC3s) are expected to perform unofficial management duties without the title or compensation. This includes onboarding, leading projects, and managing cross-functional comms, while still being measured as if they were “just” engineers.

Chaotic planning: priorities change weekly, sometimes mid-week. You’ll start sprinting in one direction, only to be told to pivot because something “urgent” came up.

Compensation structure is fragile: the base salary is a minority of your total comp. If you’re ever on extended leave (e.g., medical), or worse – laid off – the loss of equity and bonus potential hits hard.

You can’t build a sustainable culture by burning out your top ICs and turning a blind eye to underperformance.

Start listening to team-level feedback, reward actual contribution, and rethink your stance on physical office mandates.

Also, if you’re going to expect 24/7 coverage, pay for it.