Yelp

Yelp is a great place for an engineer of any level of experience to learn and have important impact.

The culture and work-life balance is really great and something emphasized as important on a team level and org-wide. Managers genuinely care if you are able to work on things you want to work on and balancing writing new code versus maintaining legacy systems.

I'm surprised how well the company still feels small despite the growth; each engineer can have a strong impact on the organization. Onboarding and mentor training is given a lot of attention to streamline new hires and interns. Interns are given really important projects, underscoring how change is largely driven from the bottom up, where good ideas win.

Nothing is perfect, but when I hear about other companies' cultures (and in some cases, dysfunctions), my issues are small.

Often, new projects require justification and planning, which are mostly necessary, but the process can slow progress. As an engineer becomes more senior, more trust is given, and the engineer becomes more familiar with the right process to get things done.

Keep the great culture that has been established over the years! Also, keep ensuring the level of transparency from managers and upper management is adequate.