Pros
- AI company sounds interesting, however you will only learn more about it if you're in the right team. - really smart and supportive fellow engineers
Cons
The work culture is challenging, with a strong tendency toward micromanagement. While not always stated directly, there is often an expectation to work evenings and weekends in order to meet demanding deadlines. Many of these deadlines stem from overpromised customer commitments or are set by inexperienced leadership, which can create unnecessary pressure. The company’s value of “do whatever it takes” can be interpreted in many ways- they way I experienced and witnessed it was employees working beyond sustainable limits. Projects frequently begin with limited or unclear requirements, leaving engineers to fill in gaps on their own. As delivery dates approach, this lack of clarity becomes more pronounced, resulting in last-minute scrambling to define requirements, perform testing, and finalize deliverables. It is not unusual to see work continuing well past normal hours, including late-night (past midnight) Slack activity and weekend involvement. The level of micromanagement can be difficult, with managers at times requesting daily updates via Slack despite the existence of project tracking tools such as Jira and standups. Constant last-minute changes and shifting priorities further disrupt focus and make it challenging to deliver high-quality work. Due to time constraints, shortcuts are often taken, projects may not reach full completion, and technical debt accumulates without being adequately addressed. I wonder if this experience is typical of a startup culture, I know for sure it is not one I plan to pursue again in the future.