Complete chaos - Exec team creates constant turmoil - Software Developer FutureLearn Employee Review

2.0
15 Sept 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lovely, talented colleagues. Good values and ethos. Flexible and supporting of remote working. Good benefits

Cons

- Constant change, producing mountains of technical debt. - Good people regularly get frustrated and leave, often joining competitor companies and no-one tries to stop them. - Senior management have no strategy except to copy Coursera's products, agree to the board's frankly ludicrous targets, and tell staff to work faster or 'smarter'. - Developers, Product Managers and Designers are frequently moved between product teams, their work unfinished and their efforts wasted. You'll never have time to get to grips with the code/project you're meant to be working on before you get yanked away onto something else. - Nothing ever gets beyond MVP before the focus moves on. There are fundamental user-facing features that haven't been touched since the company launched in 2013, even though everyone acknowledges it's rubbish and users constantly tell us so. - Product leadership has been weak for years; lots of new blood has arrived in the Exec and they wants to change priorities, yet again. They think they have all the answers, but ignore years of wisdom, experience and insight into what has been tried before. - The founding CEO is leaving (is already AWOL at time of writing) so there will be another 6-12 months of churn - I'd advise against joining the company until the dust settles in, say, late 2021.

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FutureLearn Response
5y
Hi, thank you for taking the time to provide feedback and advice to management. I am sorry you are not having a great experience, feel free to reach out to me and continue the conversation. Regards, Catalina (CPeO)

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4.0
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Pros

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Cons

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1.0
27 Mar 2026
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CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some nice people who try hard but are rarely rewarded, ok benefits. Still a few good things remaining from better times.

Cons

Weak, erratic leadership who are afraid to tackle manipulative, toxic, misogynistic people. Lots of churn, layoffs, direction changes and very poor financials that just get worse with all the bad leadership decisions.

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