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      SmartNews

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      SmartNews Reviews

      3.2

      44% would recommend to a friend

      (141 total reviews)
      avatar

      Kaisei Hamamoto

      50% approve of CEO

      22% positive business outlook

      SmartNews has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 141 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SmartNews employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      141 reviews
      1.0
      9 July 2021

      Stay Away: Mental Health Issues, Decision Paralysis, and Old Style

      Senior manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Good cash compensation - Strong revenue, pro-covid business - Too big to not IPO as a Japanese company

      Cons

      -I have seen multiple people go through mental breakdown at the company, management doesn't care, no investment in career growth, managers are themselves under high pressure - they have no time to manage a team, neither do they know how to manage one. As a pre-ipo company this is unacceptable. -Leadership is trying to buy talent, they pour money from Japan to recruit in US, but senior engineers leave in a few months due to poor work culture. - Management has their "folks" embedded everywhere which gather and pass on info to them. This is how they know what is happening sitting in JP. -Reactive culture- Slow to respond, not interested, aloof, "I know it better than you" type of culture

      avatar
      SmartNews Response
      4y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. We are deeply sorry that your experience at SmartNews has been anything less than exceptional. We are constantly reflecting and actively working on ways to improve. When it comes to the mental well-being of our employees, we take this issue very seriously and are working hard to alleviate these stresses by emphasizing a culture of communication within the company. If you would like to share additional constructive feedback or comments, feel free to email us at feedback_hr@smartnews.com.
      1.0
      22 July 2021

      Used to be a good startup but now full of bureaucracy and third-rater

      Senior software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      - Most people are nice. Some of them are really top talents. - Good office in San Francisco and Tokyo

      Cons

      - Business stopped growing since mid 2020 - Leaderships are ridiculous and incapable - Only very few people care their product - High communication cost and extremely hard to ship things - Timezone issue: have to stay late night or wake early morning to meet with people from other offices and it happens everyday

      avatar
      SmartNews Response
      4y
      Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. We appreciate your recognition of our quality talent and kind employees. Our hiring team works hard to recruiting that align with our company mission and we take pride in maintaining an office environment that our employees feel comfortable in. Our HR team is working on developing training programs and effective feedback loops for leaders within our company. We are actively working on creating a system that accommodates for individuals in different time zones effectively to make the workplace better for all our teams. We appreciate your time in bringing our attention to these shortcomings. Please let us know if you have any additional feedback at feedback_hr@smartnews.com.
      1.0
      27 Sept 2023

      C Suite driving this once freight train into the side of a mountain

      Software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Great people, with great potential as a company. 12 months ago, this was an amazing place to work. The product is good, not as great as it once was, but will be improved, I still have faith. Once things turn around, SmartNews can be successful.

      Cons

      Upper management is destroying this company. Once an amazing workplace, now you are simply a number on a spreadsheet. I have never seen a company fall so drastically to bad upper management hires. No direction whatsoever. Just because it says Google on a resume does not mean they are the right person for a job.

      Viewing 1 - 3 of 141 Reviews
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      Glassdoor has 156 SmartNews reviews submitted anonymously by SmartNews employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SmartNews is right for you.