English is not the primary language in the office. Communication is very poor. My manager did not speak to me for the first month or more I was there and wouldn't respond to my email. Managers in general seemed to be very, very inexperienced. There was a distinct lack of understanding of American labor laws and almost all the management was not American.
I would say at least 80% of the staff or more when I was there was off-shore. I was surprised at how few people were actually here. That was never disclosed when i interviewed. I suspect because again, management is inexperienced and didn't realize what candidates should know and be prepared for. It's not that that fact in and of itself is something to be hidden but it should be known. You really need to know what challenges you will face in the actual work environment when you take a position.
There was little teamwork to speak of that I saw. Help with learning what to do with technical issues was basically do it yourself. With a complicated thing like Openstack, that is going to be rough even if you are a genius because you are still going to have to learn the customers and you definitely need help with that. I saw people asking the same questions over and over, really working to try to resolve things but help was slow in coming or non-existent.
This is a start-up making the mistake that so many do, ignoring how people are doing their work and not actively encouraging collaboration between staff or groups. There was also very little oversight by upper management on what was happening day to day. Managers closer to the front line spent their time on technical work. There is also no corporate culture to speak of. If you are fine working on your own and figuring out what to do, that's great and it definitely has it's place but you cannot scale a company with everyone working that way. You should not have to get things done purely relying on personal relationships you forge with others in the office, either. That being said, if you were from the mother country you did have a different experience which I think is reflected in the other reviews so keep that in mind as you read them. For them this was a great opportunity since they got to come to America to work and some people were getting sponsored for green cards.
If you are hired as an expert in something but your boss will not listen, that's a problem. Especially if he is inexperienced in what you do. If you are only issued orders, with no discussion or collaboration, the outcome will never be what is expected or needed. If you ask for feedback or clarification and you get no response, you are almost doomed to failure when doing something complicated or trying to put structure in place. There is no underlying process and procedure in place for how to get work done. There is no new employee on-boarding. I couldn't get anyone interested in even seeing that it was a problem. Yes, you get to pick out your own laptop but you also get to use your own equipment until it gets there.
Technically, this is a very interesting place but if you are interested in working here, be sure and ask ALOT of questions of as many people as you can and listen carefully to what you are told. I did do that and ultimately I feel I was not told the whole truth. I don't think the intent was malicious but definitely from a lack of experience or caring. The person who ultimately became my boss didn't even listen to my answers during the interview, he told ME the answers as he saw them. I was ready to bring in people I knew that were very good but then realized I wouldn't do that to anyone I actually respected so that's when I left. And I have to say that the first review looks like it was done to try to attract people to hire and not a true assessment of what it was like to work here for anyone in the trenches.
Your experience may be different since I do want to collaborate, work in teams at times, and help a start-up grow. I have been there before and I think I know what it takes. If all you want to do is keep your head down and do technical work with no concern for the company, maybe that will work. After all, it's only a job. But a start-up can't scale unless there are people who do care and are knowledgable in how a company should work, much less will it survive. I feel extremely disappointed in the way I was treated and it is cold comfort that others told me they felt the same way. I felt there was so much potential here and I really wanted to do so much.
