Pros
The People: 97.6% of the employees I have met are very smart and friendly. The exception was one guy who I played ping pong with. He questioned the legality of my ping pong serve and ended up messing with my head and my game took a long time to recover. If one person was to personify the people at Credit Karma it would be Hermione Granger. Smart, driven, empathetic, magical, funny, should have ended up with Harry (this analogy might be breaking down).
The Mission: sounds a little schmaltzy (this whole review was just an excuse to use the word schmaltzy) but sh*t tons (European measurement term) of Americans have bad credit. They can't cover a $500 emergency. They are living paycheck to paycheck. Their bad credit is costing them money. For credit cards, auto loans, mortgages. By providing them free credit scores and advice Credit Karma has helped a huge group of people corporate America traditionally likes to screw over. So instead of treating people like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and feed them sh*t), we treat them like a non fungi organism (keep them in the light and provide useful information).
The CEO: Have worked under egomaniacs (but he did smell great in fairness), smart people with no people skills and leaders you just never see (and when you do you almost expect them to be traveling in a Pope mobile because the sightings are so rare). Ken is none of these. Genuine, smart person you want to work with and for. Only downside is I beat him in Street Fighter 2 (he is an expert) and he insisted on a best of 3 so he could win (and he subsequently did!).
Cons
They bring in seasonal snacks. Occasionally they hit upon real winners (Spicy Pop chips). Despite requesting an extension of the best rotating options I was given the metaphorical middle finger.
There are a few typical growing pains of a rapid growth company. They are still trying to sort out a few processes as they scale. Mission focus may be taking more of a back seat than in previous years. Also more political maneuvering on the rise than before. Sometimes performing at a high level is not good enough if you don't position yourself in the right way within the company.
