Pros
Working at Upstart has been life changing in many ways. I had the opportunity to join in the early days of the Columbus office and it has been a whirlwind ever since. We've grown a ton and even though there have been growing pains, I'm consistently impressed with the strength of our leadership team, our clear product vision and the caliber of the folks in each and every area of the company. There's definitely a focus on employee care. We are expected to perform at a very high level and the speed at which we work can be stressful, but I also feel very well taken care of by the company. They continue adding new perks and benefits (literally just added a 401k match and financial planning service today), have a very thorough and consistent approach to compensation and take action on employee surveys and feedback. Tons of opportunity for growth. We're scaling big time which means that strong performers have lots of runway to grow in their existing role or into roles that don't even exist yet. Still very transparent. We continue to have our weekly all staff where we get to hear off the cuff updates from our founders and dive into whatever questions people have. They are very accessible outside of that as well- not a super hierarchical organization at all. We've deliberately been focusing on diversify our employee base and weaving inclusion into all decisions. Still always plenty of ways to improve, but I appreciate that it's a consistent topic of conversation and there seems to be genuine effort. Generous equity package doesn't hurt :)
Cons
No company is perfect, and I've certainly had plenty of frustrating days. Sometimes it feels like we're growing too quick or trying to do too much too fast, which makes me nervous. Very fast paced. I'm given the autonomy to manage my own workload as I see fit and can take time off as I need it, but with how ambitious our goals are it can be challenging to hold firm boundaries.