Great Company, especially if you're working on product/engineering - Software Engineer Gusto Employee Review

5.0
23 Apr 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- High opportunity for impact - Smart, talented, hard-working people (at least in Engineering, Product, and Design) - Growing company with promising business prospects - Big focus on culture in both hiring and the way the company is run

Cons

- Some churn and difficulty in teams outside of Engineering/Product like Sales - Classic startup work/life balance challenges. Because of opportunity for impact and leadership being full of people who are perfectly ok w/ 60+ hr work weeks, you can feel obligated to work a lot as well. - Work on engineering team is pretty simple. There will probably be more interesting work to do in the future as the product and user-base matures but most of the work being done right now is fairly simple. This is, of-course true at a lot of silicon valley companies and is not unique to Gusto. Nonetheless, for someone interested in technical growth (as opposed to managerial growth) it can seem limiting.

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Gusto Response
10y
Glad to hear that your experience at Gusto has been positive so far. Definitely let your PE or the People team know if you’d like to connect about managing your working hours and/or want to discuss how that’s going for you. Keep us honest on transparency and culture and keep the feedback coming!

Explore other reviews about Gusto

5.0
10 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart and friendly coworkers. Excellent team culture

Cons

Tunnel visions on AI a bit too much

2.0
20 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The product is genuinely good, too bad the same can’t be said for how they treat the people who sell it.

Cons

Leadership talks a big game about people-first culture but the reality doesn’t match. The Chicago office expansion felt like a poorly thought-out experiment, new hires were brought on without a clear long-term commitment, and layoffs came without warning, leaving people blindsided. Crossing a billion dollars in revenue and still cutting employees sends a clear message about where workers rank on the priority list. Remote work flexibility is also a glaring weakness. For a company selling HR software to modern businesses, their internal stance on where employees can work is surprisingly rigid and hypocritical. The “flexibility” messaging is mostly optics. The broader concern is the AI roadmap. The automation push feels less like an innovation strategy and more like a slow wind-down of the workforce. Employees aren’t blind to it, it creates anxiety and erodes trust. The culture of transparency they promote externally is largely a facade internally.

10
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