To those of you considering whether or not to apply to an open position at or accept a job offer from 1stdibs, I would strongly urge you to consider/ask about the following:
Consider the inflated rating 1stdibs has on this site. This is largely due to the number of 5-star reviews given by employees that have been at the company for less than a year. The reason for so many of these reviews? HR makes leaving a Glassdoor review part of your onboarding process...WAY before anyone would have been at the company long enough to get a true impression of what it's like to work there. This speaks volumes for how the company is run and where management's priorities are - numbers are regularly omitted, fudged, played around with in order to reflect growth to higher-ups.
Be sure to ask about turnover on the team. Even if you ask, you may get a roundabout answer of "we lost people due to restructuring". Be aware that HR will use the term "restructuring" to get you to think the fact an entire team has left is normal. LISTEN TO YOUR INSTINCT. An entire team leaving is NOT, by any means, normal. Turnover on several teams is ridiculously high and for good reason. I would strongly advise you to talk to someone who has worked on the team you may be joining or at least someone who works closely with the team you're considering joining. Look on LinkedIn and see for yourself how many extremely qualified people have had short stints at 1stdibs - this is no coincidence.
Be prepared to overhear wildly unprofessional conversations around you in the open floor plan office particularly about the hiring process. You may overhear ridicule of a candidate's education, or even their photo online. You will encounter managers that put down their team members in front of everyone in interdepartmental meetings. There are even employees that remain at the company after making multiple people cry in front of everyone in meetings. Do you really want to work somewhere this type of behavior goes unpunished/has been normalized?
Management is extremely opaque while they tout transparency and honesty as one of the company values. Completely laughable. Decisions are made without consulting the team members who will actually be affected, and you will be kept out of the loop on most if not every decision that affects you. You will also encounter management that has no idea what their team members do, and consequently you will neither be utilized properly nor be set up to succeed.
Little to no communication. Many times, management will be unclear about what they want and then be unreachable for their feedback as deadlines arrive. By the time feedback is given, so much work has already been done that people end up having to do 2-3x the work they originally had to do. People are suffering and management refuses to change.
Mobility/chances of promotion - this has been a company-wide problem as management continues to place emphasis on hiring from the outside instead of promoting employees that have been loyal and devoted to the company for a number of years. You will be passed up for a promotion by someone outside of the company that may actually have less experience than you. Management does not care about you or your career trajectory. You are simply a cog in a machine and to be frank, they couldn't care less about your loyalty.
Work life balance varies across teams and I would make sure to get as accurate of a picture of this as possible to set your expectations. Some teams can arrive later in the day and leave at 4PM. Other teams are expected to be reachable and solve problems in real time around the clock. Make sure you know what will be expected of you before you happily sign your life away.
