Uptake Reviews

Incompetent management: many high level management have no clue what motivates employee and how to make good products. It is quiet obvious from recent events that existing customers are not happy with what Uptake is doing. low-ball payment to experienced employee. No bonus, ridiculous stock options for a startup. They claim to offer market average but do not take into consideration of experience. Senior (and great) employees with 4 ~ 10+ years more experience may receive about 10k ~ 30k more than fresh graduations with similar education. Evaluation: for some department there is no clear career vertical advancement. Self-evaluation may be modified to worse without notice after 1-1 meet between manager and subordinate. backstabbing: manager who has no experience or clue would put himself to more projects and replace capable employees, with no notice. lack of professionalism: manager leak performance information to peers. Aggressive and unnecessary interference of projects to suit the need of management.

One could argue that the "cons" of Uptake are because it's a start-up, however, Uptake is far from start-up. Don't let them tell you otherwise. There is nothing start-up about this company anymore. The culture/vibe has quickly become one that is stuffy/political and corporate in nature. Whether that's good or bad for the future of the company remains to be seen. One of the biggest cons is the lack of transparency and incessant secrecy. For a company who preaches clarity and trust, there are far too many cliques where information is only shared if you're "in" and even if you think you're in, you will soon find out that you're not and be left in the dark about something that directly impacts you and your ability to do your job. Even as a manager, you are kept in the dark about things that impact your team. That secrecy mentality starts at the top of the organization and works its way down. Ready to be thrown under the bus by people who are either intimidated by you or choose to not like you simply because they have nothing better to do with their lives? Gonna happen; so be prepared. Another con is how they reward/pay people. For starters, there is no logic to how people are paid other than who you know and more often than not, what school you went to. Grant it a year ago, Uptake was a start-up and you took a risk coming but like many people who go to work for start-ups, you had faith in the CEO and their vision. You know/felt/hoped that if you worked your butt off and helped them realize their vision, you would be rewarded. At Uptake,you quickly learn that the faith you had and the bill of goods they sold you in recruiting would amount to disappointment. People give their lives and time to this company to build something just a year ago didn't exist and yet if you are not "one of the cool kids", they will either find a way to get rid of you or give you an insulting pay increase and then not care two cents if you decide to walk away. Loyalty? Yeah...not in the Uptake Lexicon.