Uber

An incredibly ambitious mission provides countless product opportunities and engineering challenges.

The engineering team is a melting pot that includes numerous veterans from top-tier technology companies, such as Apple, Google, and Facebook, and the culture borrows from the best aspects of each.

There's a pervasive habit of transparency and honest, often critical self-reflection, with an aim of always improving oneself and one's peers. Real change comes swiftly when there are problems.

Teams are organized to be small and autonomous so that every engineer can have an outsized impact.

Things move quickly, and the team and business are growing rapidly. There's ample opportunity to make a dent and advance your career.

Enjoy the impact of working at a small, fast-moving startup with the reach and security of a multi-billion dollar industry giant.

The growth of the team has at times outpaced the growth of processes and support staff. Every so often you encounter a problem you'd expect a company of this size and impact to have solved.

The downside of the fast-moving, autonomous teams is that coordinating across teams can be a challenge.

Headed in the right direction, but there's a long way to go in terms of workforce diversity.

Keep up the culture of humility and self-reflection.

Stop relying so heavily on personal networks and referrals to fuel the exponential growth of the engineering team.