Pros
1. The colleagues here are genuinely great. People are friendly, professional, and there’s very little interpersonal conflict. This is the part I valued the most during my time at the company. 2. The company’s product direction is meaningful and has real potential for impact. There is an opportunity for growth and improvement.
Cons
1. I haven’t visited Glassdoor for a while, but I noticed that some of the negative reviews I clearly remember seem to be missing. I’m not sure why they disappeared. When I first joined the company, I spent a long time reading employee feedback, and many of those comments no longer appear. It’s quite puzzling. 2. The CEO lacks a basic understanding of management and delegation. He frequently bypasses middle management and assigns tasks directly to frontline employees. Micromanagement is the default leadership style, and it causes widespread frustration across the entire company. 3. The CEO is surrounded by a group of middle managers who appear loyal but lack the competence required for a technology company. Many of them are disconnected from the market and have little to no experience in tech R&D. Their titles look impressive, but based on my experience in previous companies, several of them are not qualified for their roles. Having such people in middle-management positions is damaging for the company as a whole. And honestly, it’s not hard to understand — the type of leadership you have determines the type of managers who gather around you. 4. In the Vancouver office, the leadership team does not have real engineering or R&D experience. They often assign tasks that do not align with actual engineering goals. It is discouraging when someone with no understanding of AI is put in charge of engineers who do have AI development experience. Having non-technical leaders directing technical teams is a predictable recipe for failure. 5. There is a clear double standard in the company culture. Although the office is located in Vancouver, the company operates almost entirely under traditional mainland Chinese corporate culture. This is not truly a Canadian company in terms of management style or workplace norms. While Chinese companies do have strengths — fast pace, strong execution — this company did not adopt the strengths; instead, it transplanted the downsides. For example, overtime is not handled according to Canadian labor laws, and there are no clear internal policies explaining how overtime is supposed to be managed. This is extremely surprising for a company operating in Canada. 6. You will frequently receive conflicting requirements from the product manager, the CEO, and your direct manager. It is shocking how inconsistent product direction can be. Does the company have product planning? Essentially no. Product plans can be changed at any moment based on a single comment from leadership. Whether something gets built, how it gets built, and when it should be delivered are often decided impulsively. This is not how a mature company operates.