Yelp

Yelp is a company with a big and solid user base. Lot of traffic, lot of load, lot of things you will probably never get a chance to work with and issues to resolve, working for a startup.

Yelp is not one of FAANG and generally speaking a medium-sized business. The engineering department looks fairly lean. This means it is quite unlikely the board is going to dump hundreds of workers in the end of a year to improve financial reports – a practice quite common in big companies.

Can't tell about other departments, but the culture in engineering is nice and chill. I worked as a contractor with big companies previously, and it was a breath of fresh air since I've joined Yelp.

Opportunities for growth – plenty of them.

Yelp is a public company; you are not paid in promises. Shares you get are convertible to real money instantly.

Office – a skyscraper in downtown SF limits the ability to build an open space, and you can actually make your/team space quite cozy.

On-call schedule is not brutal.

Downtown SF – plenty of opportunities before/after work: concerts, bars, tech meetups.

Most of these apply to the folks who plan to work in the office. They tell nothing for remote folks.

• You won't buy a Lambo after IPO; the company is already public.
• You go out and pay for your food yourself; no daily deliveries, just cafeteria and snacks.
• No dry cleaning service.
• No gym.
• No showers (critical if you're biking).
• No Uber/Lyft credit to get to/out of the office. You pay for your transportation/parking yourself. You can pay for BART/Muni/parking pre-tax, though.
• Downtown SF is the filthiest place west of the New York City Subway.
• You have options: either live in SF and dump a lot of money into rent, or waste a lot of time commuting.

How about an office in Colorado?