- All employees are equally important. It’s just highly apparent that some are more equal than others.
- Salary: All the best in negotiating a market aligned salary. Best option is to choose to quit and then get a counter-offer on what you initially asked for. Worked for me- but maybe too late? Equity- not everyone has it. Bonus policy- LOL. Benefits and perks- decent-ish.
- Workload: Ever seen the overworked, underappreciated, company loyalty clown meme? If you do your job well, you’ll get a pat on your back + 2% annual raise IF you’re eligible and get given more responsibilities with fewer resources in name of “efficiency”. Burnout is a terrible word you’d most probably be reprimanded for using by managers but you’ll notice the team members at times crying out of stress and frustration in dealing with unrealistic expectations, decisions, and lack of clarity in their roles. Be prepared to attend pointless meetings, pointless presentations, pointless events, send pointless reports, and be involved in pointless chains of emails in the name of “cross team collaboration”. Ask for less work, pay rise, hiring of more team members to help with the workload, etc. - and the best you’ll get is a “wellbeing pill” which is a 10 min advice on weekly company call. Not sure the last time I noticed any of my colleagues have a proper 1 hour lunch break. You’re expected to be highly ambitious in alignment with the company values but the service level ambition internally is to be “good enough” since we are supposed to be role modelling. Values just felt like buzzwords without implementation.
- Culture: trying to be the cool kid in the block, but you’ll notice stodgy dress codes, static schedules, uninspiring ikea-fied office, interpersonal drama, presenteeism, and despite the flexible workplace pitch- you’ll notice subtle judgement and measuring of physical presence and in-office time. A little bit of hearsay is normal. But apparently, the rumour mills have a ton of attention in the organization in my opinion. The company brands itself as a startup- but expect conventional corporate culture. Picture the office where your parents worked at. Yes- that.
- IQM- you’ll most probably wonder what that stands for. Once I got to know the only person who knows the acronym- I just probably assumed it was something cliche and uninspiring.
- Once you get to join the company- expect to play musical chairs since you might be changing seats every few weeks.
- I didn’t sense the excitement of career progression within the organization from anyone throughout my tenure.
- Technology and processes- Expect daily friction and struggles with tools and processes- I’ve contemplated therapy and anger management sessions every morning after logging in for work.
