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Zopa Reviews
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UK - All CitiesApprove of CEO
Jaidev Janardana
26 Ratings
Pros
"Both are supportive and really care about work/life balance" (in 6 reviews)
"Great people and collaboration across disciplines" (in 7 reviews)
Cons
"Career progression is stifled, but improving" (in 4 reviews)
"Like any growing company there are sometimes systems issues/kinks to iron out but the people are great and everyone works together to get the job done" (in 3 reviews)
- Featured Review
Helpful (6)
![Zopa Logo]()
"Great people, great company!"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
+Been here for around a year and a half now and seen the company grow lots!
+We make sure we hire the right people that follow our values and who are truly interested in our product. It makes all the difference.
+I have all the tools needed to do my job.
+Flexible working (working from home days and relaxed hours)
+Senior management are all approachable, friendly and help get things over the line when needed.
+Nice perks - breakfast, Friday company drinks, zocials.
+Amazing offices on the Thames, with an awesome view of the city.
+A really friendly place with a good positive vibe around the office.
+Clear mission statement.Cons
- squads/tribes model isn't attractive to some
- sometimes hesitant to use new tech (Slack, etc)Advice to Management
You've created an awesome place to work and it will only keep improving. The people here are the best thing about it. Let's do our best to keep everyone we can and recruit the best talent. moving forward.
Zopa 2018-09-06 06:49 PDT Helpful (2)
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"Making great progress"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Positive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Cross team collaboration and overall focus on getting things done
- Great tech team building leading edge finance systems, all teams get to play a role in building a leading bank
- Good working environment, office on the Thames, company meetings every Friday with drinks, free breakfastCons
- Lots to get done so jobs are very busy
Advice to Management
- Keep up the good work, prioritise a bit better so everyone is 100% clear on top things to do.
Zopa 2019-02-06 04:01 PSTHelpful (2)
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"Excellent Company"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Excellent company that encourages personal development and growth. Original review process was thorough but friendly. Good benefits for working at Zopa and a company culture that is rarely nurtured in the finance industry.
Cons
No cons to provide, have been enjoying my time here.
Zopa 2018-11-22 07:58 PSTHelpful (4)
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"Exciting growth opportunities at Zopa!"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
- Established company with an appetite for growth
- Opportunity to have a strong influence at the company
- Smart people, who are willing to support each other
- Flexible working
- Great office in a great locationCons
- Ambitious growth can sometimes feel like the company is doing too much at once. This means you need to be very focussed in order to make traction in your area.
Zopa 2018-11-14 01:55 PSTHelpful (3)
![Zopa Logo]()
"Best place I've ever worked"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Fun working environment, great location, good emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, health insurance, free breakfast and coffee, people are generally approachable and friendly, training opportunities
Cons
There is limited room for career progression and the salary isn't very competitive. This means retention levels are low and there's a lot of grumbling.
Advice to Management
Equipping and empowering existing employees to move up in the company and improving remuneration will result in a much happier workforce!
Zopa 2018-11-23 02:15 PSTHelpful (3)
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"Fun place to work with opportunities"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Fun
-Lots to do
- great peopleCons
- Not enough management support
Advice to Management
N/A
Zopa 2018-10-22 05:16 PDTHelpful (3)
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"Great place to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
-great management who care about their people
-good attitude towards making improvements based on feedback
-high performing but laid back culture
-great locationCons
-can be chaotic as with any growing company
-organisation structure can be difficult to understand from outside any teamAdvice to Management
-better articulation of organisational design and recruiting priorities
-maintain the openness with staff as we continue to growZopa 2018-09-01 01:07 PDTHelpful (11)
![Zopa Logo]()
"Great to start with, but now feels as if it's falling apart."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Negative OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Smart, good people to work with.
- Diverse, ambitious teams
- Location
- Great CEO - he really cares
- Flexible star/end hours
- Working from home negotiable
- Friday afternoon drinksCons
- Minimal team autonomy
- Moving away from agile and into central management
- Complete techstack overhaul without prior warning (from .NET to Java)
- Little drive in doing things right; cutting corners, especially insofar as monoliths and CI are involvedAdvice to Management
I gave ZOPA a 3 because it felt like a 5/5 during my first months there, and a 1/5 when I finally did leave !
ZOPA was at its peak when at that special place, growing from an ambitious startup to a proper business.
Unfortunately the transition brought a lot of bad corporate elements with it. Teams lost their autonomy, the HR department sort of became an enforcer rather than a supporter to the employees.
Developers lost their voice when it came to following tech stacks, tools, or practices and a lot of decisions were made behind closed doors only to be announced to the teams afterwards. In sum, ZOPA went from : Do as I do, to do as I say.
Still, I feel the situation can be fixed if management realises that they had the right recipe to begin with:
a) Hire good people
b) Put the right people in the right job
c) Give developers an agreed set of tools and practices (.NET, Java, Ruby, etc)
d) Allow the teams involved in the actual work to decide which of the pre approved tools to use
e) Reward effort, and encourage good practices between the developers
f) Reward people who try the hardest - and I am not referring to myself. I've first hand witnessed give it their all and be treated poorly... As a fellow reviewer stated, success is almost never appreciated; something I tried to encourage and change but did not get very far with.
You got talented people everywhere. Just go back to one of your manifesto's points: Strive to do things right :)Zopa 2018-07-27 07:55 PDTHelpful (14)
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"Maximum effort down the drain"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- There are some truly smart and inspiring individuals here
- Eggs for breakfast
- Good office locationCons
- Terrible compensation, below market value
- Managers just can't seem to coordinate efforts (which falls back onto devs)
- Managers have little tech experience
- Ship fast, worry about security later (and yes, we're supposed to be a bank)
- Ill-defined product goals lead to incredible amounts of wasted codeAdvice to Management
1. Value your talent with salary increases and adequate bonuses (instead of wasting it on eggs and cereal: they don't necessarily fit into everyone's diet)
2. Purge all mediocre PMs
3. Offer clearly defined career pathsZopa 2018-08-15 16:13 PDTHelpful (8)
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"A confusing mess"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Zopa full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Location is good
- Some very helpful people
- There is a salary
- The founder is very approachable and friendlyCons
- weak management
- Nothing is done right
- Culture of the company promotes ineptitude
- Bonuses are not paid
- I'd rather have a competitive salary than a breakfastAdvice to Management
- current status quo needs a serious shake up
Zopa 2018-08-12 03:18 PDT
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