Terrible structure - Software Engineer Handshake Employee Review

2.0
30 Sept 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Benefits are good - Fairly compensated - Diverse-ish teams - Remote options, never forced teams back into office -Growth opportunities available

Cons

-Structure is an entire crap show. Especially communication -Lie/omit information during the interview process. I asked about how much time is spent in meetings on average and my manager lied and said 3 hours. On average I am in meetings 7 - 22hrs a week -You will be on call and sometimes in multiple rotations. Another piece of info they will intentionally omit during interviews. So if you had a life, kiss that goodbye. Handshake is your life now. -Way too many cooks in the kitchen -Some companies promote asking for forgiveness instead of permission. This isn't one. You need to talk to about 3 - 10 people before you can do anything and if you try to just push something up that's seemingly harmless/low risk you will still be "yelled at" for doing that in public. -Overly competitive culture -Not inclusive even though it's diverse, and the privilege shows

Explore other reviews about Handshake

5.0
12 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work at your own pace.

Cons

Task limit when new to project.

2.0
12 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It's flexible and sometimes the money is OK. I got paid most of what they owed me.

Cons

Generally disorganized. The task I was on was one of the more highly paid ones but it was almost impossible to actually do in the allotted time. You aren't supposed to use AI but I think people must. The tasks run far over the time they are supposed to take. The human review system also seemed almost arbitrary. Reviewers did not have the subject matter expertise they claimed to. You will make less than the advertised hourly rate because the tasks routinely take longer than they say they will. If they have averages that are lower, those people are either not submitting accurate hours (there is incentive not to) or are using AI to train AI, which is a bigger problem (but not yours).

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