Pros
This is a fast growing company that will allow you to build up your career with challenging work that will force you to think on your feet. The company's top executives have also demonstrated that they care about their employees by providing generous compensation packages & benefits. In addition, integrity is something that the top executives will never compromise on. If something is profitable but also unethical, they will not even consider doing it, knowing that if the company does not have integrity, then nothing else matters. Also, CEO Ali Ghodsi is an easy person to get along with. He is not the type of CEO that just sits in his office all day and orders people around. He tries to get to know people by name and says hi whenever he passes you by. It may not seem like much, but a CEO showing a friendly and calm demeanor brings positive energy to the workplace. The same can be said for CFO Dave Conte, CMO Rick Schultz, Chief Revenue Officer Ron Gabrisko, Chief People Officer Amy Reichanadter, SVP of Product David Meyer, SVP of Finance John Winkenbach, VP of Legal Scott Starbird, and co-founder Reynold Xin.
Cons
As much as I enjoyed working for the company and as much as I appreciated the experience Databricks has given me, unfortunately it has been infiltrated by people (mostly middle managers) who are more concerned with office politics than with getting work done. I reported to a middle manager who was clearly out of his realm regarding his job duties and responsibilities. But he never listened to others and was more interested in playing office politics by blaming others, making up stories, and omitting facts to ensure that he looks good while others look worse than he already does. For example, he was inundated with the amount of work to be done and was constantly falling behind, so I offered my services to help alleviate the backlog. He declined, which caused the backlog to grow even more. But rather than asking for help or admitting he was wrong, he decided to put all the blame on everything that went wrong on my shoulders, despite the fact that I either (1) was not told that I had to do certain things or (2) that I did not have the proper access to certain systems that will allow me to do certain tasks. He also told other departments that I was not a team player and that I did not care about my job. He then issued threats while continuing to hammer down the idea that everything was my fault and nothing was his fault. As a result of the actions of this middle manager, some employees in the other departments zeroed in on me as the culprit for some of the things that went wrong on their end. The only things that saved me from a complete ruin to my reputation at the company were the (1) several positive relationships I built with a lot of employees there, both from within my department and with other departments, (2) the fact that many executives and senior directors noticed that I demonstrated willingness to work weekends and nights to help catch up on work, and (3) the raises and the above average performance reviews from my previous managers. Just so you know, the same kind of dirty politics that I experienced also happened to a handful of other people in other departments. They dealt with a middle manager who is more interested in playing dirty office politics than with working towards the company's goals and objectives. With this toxic environment that I fell into, I felt that I could not work any longer in that capacity and decided to move on to my next opportunity. Life is too short to waste on working with toxic people, especially if a much better opportunity is around the corner.
