Block Software Engineer reviews

3.4

44% would recommend to a friend

(252 total reviews)
avatar

Jack Dorsey

22% approve of CEO

17% positive business outlook

Software Engineer employees have rated Block with 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 252 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. Block is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

252 reviews
5.0
Oct 27, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

From a software engineer point of view, you get the opportunity to work and learn lots of different software stacks. Backend services are usually either in Java or Go. The frontend is written in Ruby and Javascript based frameworks. We also have a handful of Android and iOS apps. Whether you want to focus on one area or contribute to project across the board, Square is a great place to work! My peers are amazingly talented. I think I have a good work-life balance. We also have a culture of pair-coding, which I think is great. It prevents procrastination, encourages the exchange of skills, and helps ensure more than one person is really familiar with the codebase. You can read more about Square Engineering: http://corner.squareup.com

Cons

Square is still a rapidly growing company which comes with pros and cons.

5.0
Oct 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- The engineers here tend to be really good. The senior engineers are the best and brightest I've worked with. The junior ones are also very sharp and have lots of potential. - Some really interesting technical problems to work on -- lots of fun, challenging, and interesting work. - In addition to being smart, the people are generally great to get along with. - Cash compensation is good for this market. Benefits are decent. And equity has a chance to be worth a lot. - Transparency and meritocracy are strong values (much better than typical corporate culture). - Great mission, lots of passion for helping small businesses and generally improving commerce. - Cool office space (SF has amazing space, a shuffleboard table, and a pool table. ATL has a cool space, nice bar, and a ping-pong table.)

Cons

- We're not yet great at remote collaboration (video conferencing, etc). This can make it hard, being outside of SF (though things have been constantly improving since I've been here -- it was really bad when I first started). - Sometimes there are techno-politics to deal with. Engineers are diverse in opinions (which is great!). But there seem to be a lot of ideologists and fewer pragmatists (not great!) - Roller coaster ride based on press coverage. (It's been more negative press recently I think, which is saddening, especially since so much of it is inaccurate.)

5.0
Oct 17, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Rewarding work, deep technical problems to solve which have direct impact to the business. Culture of openness and collaboration; company structure treats employees with respect and rewards individual responsibility and initiative. Unbeatable time off and leave policy.

Cons

Can be intense at times; there's a lot of work to be done. Company experiments with improving internal process regularly and is growing rapidly, which can lead to some heartburn as management adjusts. Career growth is very self-driven. No 401k match.

Viewing 229 - 231 of 252 Reviews

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