Squarespace Reviews

- Squarespace Engineering is still struggling to figure out some of its key parts, which is a pretty big red flag considering the age of the company. Don’t expect anything said in the interview process to actually hold up once the job starts. Before taking the job, I was told by multiple people that Squarespace prided itself on having a flat career ladder without official titles. Coming from a similar organization, I knew this worked for me. Less than a month after I started, they introduced a poorly-explained career ladder with an astounding number of tiers. Although the ladder was somehow tied to compensation, this was never explained. The team I was placed onto did not allow me to apply much of what I had worked on before, nor did it resemble the kinds of questions I had been asked in interviews. This was a surprise for me, as I expressed wanting to continue doing the same kind of work I had been doing to multiple people. It was also a far cry from what I felt had been sold to me by my recruiter. The benefit for Squarespace was that they could place me on an insultingly low tier on the career ladder that ignored my years of experience because the responsibilities of my team were new to me. The review schedule meant that it would take well over a year for me to possibly move up to a place on the ladder that would start to match where I had been at the job I just left. When I brought up my concerns with team placement, the best they could do was shrug their shoulders and say that they were new to having teams. That is a very tough pill to swallow for someone who left an entire life behind to move across the country to take a job. NYC snobbery is at its absolute worst at Squarespace. After living in cities for nearly a decade, I decided to start out in the suburbs when I moved for them. No matter who it was and whether it was their business or not, anyone who found this out reacted as if my choices were awful and that I didn’t belong with the rest of them. Ultimately, the gatekeeping has made me strongly reconsider whether the greater NYC area is the right place for me. Recruiting sold me on Squarespace having flexible work hours. What this really means is that most of engineering starts to roll in at 11:30 AM. I chose to work something closer than 8:30-5:15 so that I could still have hours left in the day when I got home. It was strongly implied by multiple people (again, whether or not it was their business) that I was having trouble adjusting to my team because our hours didn’t match. Nobody thought to address the real problem, which was that it’s impossible to schedule anything before 12pm without protest. The lack of discipline made it feel less like work and more like summer camp. The entire experience was one I was glad to rid myself by pursuing another opportunity as soon as I could. Be careful of what they tell you- it probably won’t come true.

Where do I even start.. * The CEO keeps a very small circle of trusted employees as leaders. Those in that circle get in by executing ideas as told and wield a lot of decision making power. The management structure is kept at a bare minimum and many executives and managers don't have enough time to devote to important issues outside of their core management areas. * Change is extremely slow - for a technology company, any ideas that come from individuals need to go through many layers of opaque and ambiguous approvals. * Many in management and executive team are not equipped or have desire to manage people. Some managers and directors are still doing individual contributor work such as creating user experience flows or code reviews instead of solving issues around resource constraints and hiring more people. * New product ideas and initiatives usually come from the top down and micro-managed from conception to release. Very few product decisions are validated by user or A/B testing. It feels like doing client work at a creative agency instead of a mature technology company at times. High priority cross functional projects are basically hell. * Retention rate is not great - People who have been around for a few years have the golden handcuffs and are waiting to cash out. The ones who joined more recently usually leave after a year or two for other companies that offer much better pay. Diversity and inclusion efforts feel disingenuous at times. * Compensation is not competitive - Squarespace's initial offer is always a step below what other New York companies in terms of total compensation. If cash bonus and stock are taken into account, the companies we compete with for talent usually pay 30-50% more for experienced positions. Annual raises barely keep up with inflation and stock refreshers are abysmal. * Promotions are hard to come by - Team leads at Squarespace are essentially managers at most other companies but have no power to determine promotions or compensation here. They are also not equipped to have conversations about what it takes for an individual to advance to the next level. Someone much higher up makes promotions and compensation adjustments for employees who they may not know. * The cultural values we used to have are slowly dying. Instead of doing a good technical job implementing product features and releasing products when ready, there's been a rush to deliver quickly at the expense of cutting corners and creating more tech debt. People are so busy with their own deadlines that they don't have time to help others anymore.