Intercom Reviews

Pros

- Full of switched-on, motivated, supportive people. Broadly speaking, Intercom has a surprisingly healthy culture compared to the way it can be sometimes in tech. - Solid salary and benefits, and management is genuinely encouraging of people making the most of them (including time off). - Lots of potential for the product/company on the whole to be successful.

Cons

I have experienced more burnout this year than I have probably ever experienced in my career. While many parts of the company are probably great places to work, the part of the org I am in isn't a good place to be at all right now (even discounting other factors due to Covid-19 etc). Despite crystal clear signals in terms of low engagement for this pocket of the company on recent engagement surveys, as well as direct written feedback representing the wider team being bubbled up to leaders/managers outlining the core problems (constant high pressure to deliver and keep others unblocked regardless of capacity or quality/process concerns, very unclear how to progress on the career ladder in practical terms, etc), combined with exit interview feedback from recent departures—leadership seem to be very slow to act in ways that represent genuine understanding/desire to change, or that actually stand a chance of making it better for the people who are being messed around while remaining under pressure. Seems like there is low trust from leaders/managers that people below them are capable, so in this part of the company at least, there is tons of scrutiny over work that frankly leaders shouldn't need to have input into/approval over. This in turn ends up killing almost all sense that there's any space or room for people to grow, progress, move up the career ladder and take on increased responsibilities. Instead, leaders dangle high profile projects as opportunities for people to prove themselves, but then load teams and people up with additional pressure and responsibilities. When people (unsurprisingly) struggle to deliver on the balance across multiple asks, it's framed as poor performance rather than poor management. Lip service is paid to making improvements, and there is some evidence that movement is starting in positive directions (full credit to the people driving that, but it isn't coming from the leaders!), however it all feels like too little too late after a range of crappy decisions/management choices from leaders in 2020.

Pros

As IC you have great control and impact over product. Things get done, managers support, practices and guidelines in place to help, not to stay in way. Ideas and challenging welcomed. No blame, super professional environment that everyone actually lives by. Failure is embraced. Huge opportunity to learn. Even big and stressful project managed very well with no overtime or hard feeling, if time is running out scope is decreased or deadline postponed, but never asked for overtime.

Cons

Very competitive, still relatively small, may not always be able to create opportunities to grow. Unless you are into politics and socail hacking. Fixing stuff is not appreciate before customer reports it. Eg. Fix I've done on an edge case bug been blocked because of FUD, 6months later big customer complains and other senior engineer takes my fix and ships it without problem.

Pros

Great benefits. all meals - Work life balance (when I allow it). I get a lot of appreciation for the work I do. I get to focus on what I'm good at but am pushed to grow and stretch my skills and knowledge daily. Accountable managers that want you to grow and have your back. No matter who you are, you will learn a ton working at Intercom.

Cons

It takes awhile to understand the organization and how to make things happen. It's pretty flat but since we are in 5 countries it can be hard to understand who does what and what their titles really mean. People that are shy may struggle a bit at first. It takes awhile to get used to people being real. Things move very fast there's a lot of change. It took me a long time to adjust to that. Some people my struggle to make their own way without a ton of guidance.

Pros

There are no shortage of companies trying to crack the hybrid work conundrum, and it's safe to say no company has all the answers. But Intercom is approaching this in a refreshingly humble and honest way – while we have a recommended number of days in the office every week, we're being treated like adults, and the opportunity to work together in the office is being framed as a desirable perk rather than an obligation. The result is that people are flocking back to the office, out of choice rather than coercion. It's been amazing to see that the strong interpersonal culture has withstood two years of WFH, and how so many new colleagues are revelling in being able to work together in person.

Cons

Certain orgs have a lot of new employees and leadership and are in the process of reinventing themselves. Inevitably, these growth spurts can be a bit a bit bumpy, but the Intercom fundamentals are still sound.

Pros

- The people are #1 at Intercom - there's no hierarchy, everyone just working hard doing their thing - They are really trying hard to make the hybrid work life work and are doing a great job at it! - There's lots of focus on you and how you like your role and what you'd like to try

Cons

- Not necessarily a con, but it's a fast-paced environment that might not suit everyone but if you like that kind of environment - it's the right place for you!!