Pros: Free material to learn, fast growing. Lots of learning.

Cons: Don't fall for the positive reviews; most of Udemy's reviews are fake! For example, there were 5 reviews on one day (Oct 17, 2019), and suspicious clusters of reviews in Udemy's history. Udemy's work culture is toxic and especially condescending to new employees. There is a ton of turnover and burnout. Senior leadership is a joke. I've had management training, and in some cases, was a lot more experienced than some people around me, yet I was somehow treated like I was a junior engineer. I am glad I left.

Pros: The company is great. The CEO is amazing and shares a lot of updates amongst the teams. The product is good. It has seen amazing growth in the last couple of years due to the pandemic. Get to work on great products. Plus, there's an emphasis on fun and education. Free food (pre-pandemic).

Cons: -401k match is limited to $500 a year, which is a joke. I once calculated that even with the free food and all the fun things here, this factor alone made my old employer, who did not even provide soda in the kitchen, better off. Plus, what is worse is that the recruiter said, 'Oh, we match 401k,' while carefully hiding the limit. The match is also structured in such a way that it is matched in January for the entire last year, so most people will not get this in their last year. Just some salt on the wound. -Levels: I was a senior staff engineer and realized that the pay levels were much lower compared to other companies. This also means that the potential to grow is less. For example, I was hired as a senior staff with a senior salary, which means that the expectations for my role were high and the salary, well, low. -Culture and Diversity: This is mixed. There seems to be an overemphasis on getting some sections of society, but at the same time, there's no real emphasis on some other demographic groups. So sometimes the talk of diversity seems to be biased. -Lack of transparency: People are let go, and teams keep guessing about what went wrong.

Pros: A mission-driven company that truly incorporates spreading learning into every aspect of its business, in a very refreshing, "let's-not-be-evil" way. Diverse, inclusive, and wholesome company and leadership.

Cons: A lot of variety in skill levels of engineers. Disorganized engineering teams with unclear ownership boundaries lead to time-wasting, "You own this," "No, we don't," "Oh wait, yeah we do" conversations.