Pros
I was one of the veteran members of OZK Labs, and overall, I had a wonderful experience working there. There are few unpleasant Glassdoor reviews about OZK Labs, and I can say for certain that nearly all of what they criticize is fabricated and inaccurate. Those reviews were written by a clique of disgruntled employees with toxic attitudes that had short-lived tenures with the organization. In reality, you’ll get to work with many highly skilled engineers on high-visibility products (mostly back-office dashboards, but some consumer-facing apps) and a modern (and evolving) tech stack: React, Node, .NET Core, and Typescript deployed on Azure. OZK Labs is all about the culture. Reed Hastings’ quote “We’re a team, not a family” (referring to Netflix) also describes the performance-focused and business-centric culture of OZK Labs. Labs is highly focused on performance, growth, and impact. If you’re committed and put in the extra effort/time, you’ll see the rewards in the form of equity bonuses and rapid promotions. I started out as a Software Engineer almost five years ago, have been promoted three times, and have seen salary adjustments and/or stock bonuses almost every year. Salaries are average for St Pete: Software Engineers start out at $85k, Seniors Engineers make ~$105k, and Principal/Lead Engineers make ~$120k. Everyone starts out with three weeks of vacation and one remote day per week. Most teams are pretty flexible, and work/life balance (for engineers) is great.
Cons
1. InfoSec and regulatory requirements often make it difficult to complete tasks efficiently or use the best tools. Everyone is issued a Surface Book with a non-administrator account. You can’t use Docker/VMs, Chrome extensions/incognito windows, Slack, Google Docs, Spotify, and a lot of other software that most of us take for granted at other companies. Nobody can access mail on personal devices or outside of the VPN. Of course, these types constraints aren’t specific to Bank OZK and in fact apply to most highly regulated environments. 2. Labs puts a lot of emphasis on culture, but it’s not for everyone. Most people in Labs are in their early twenties and/or don’t have families, and spend a lot of their nights/weekends working. These are often the same people that set many of the expectations of the Labs team. Working for Labs is tough for those with a growing family seeking a stable environment, due to the pure performance-focused mindset of management and the lack of paid parental leave. 3. In my opinion, Product Managers have far too much responsibility and are severely over-worked. They’re usually the ones still in the office at 7pm and sending emails on the weekend. In addition to steering overall product direction, they also assume the role of QA, BA, ScrumMaster, and UI designer. Because of these expectations, they often try to control a bit too much of the development and design decisions that should really be left up to those with an expertise in those fields of knowledge.
