Wise

You get loads of autonomy and influence over product and design. You won't be a code monkey.

This can be very, very inconsistent, depending on the team.

In my experience, I encountered clueless managers trying to further their own careers over the betterment of the team. There are quite a few living embodiments of the Dunning-Kruger effect!

The environment started feeling a lot more corporate. The classic issues of 'waterfall masquerading as agile' have started to crop up.

The number of meetings kept going up, and don't expect to get any concentrated time to do work, as Slack will ensure you're constantly distracted!

The company is also in a bit of an identity crisis about what the product actually is. Ask 10 people, and you'll get 10 different answers. None of them incorrect, but not entirely correct either.

The culture and values on paper look great, but I'm finding it harder and harder to see those values in a practical way. It doesn't matter what you write on the wall, but what you reward and who you promote. In my experience, there was a massive incongruity between the written values and practical values.

There is a certain kind of person that can succeed at TransferWise. The traits likely to do well are:

• Overconfident
• Loud
• Loves to talk
• Can make themselves heard in a loud meeting

It's rather sad because here's a company that has literally everything going for it. It's solving a real problem with a product that seems to work (so far) and is profitable. The management seem to be caught like a rabbit in the headlights, though, and that could cripple the company's long-term prospects.

Start making some decisions!

Autonomous teams are just a cop out from having to call some shots and ruffling a few feathers. People management is non-existent. Spending some time on that would massively improve efficiency.