- Lack of career progression and pathways to promotions. Management took 18 months to put together a "plan" which consisted of three positions. Engineer, Sr. Engineer and Principal. This was followed up by a stack ranking system that was primarily subjective instead of objective. Almost every engineer was left frustrated and confused by this grading system but were told to "give it time". The issue was not with being stack-ranked but rather the lack of objective criteria on the ranking system.
- Hiring of new engineers placed at levels above existing engineers. At first glance this may seem petty, but it's to point out the hypocrisy in the stack rank. The new-hires are great guys/gals but if subjected to same stack rank excel sheet they wouldn't have the Sr title. Engineering management lost what little respect was had for them after this stack rank debacle when they created two standards for giving out titles.
- Engineering management has no clue how to run an organization of 70+ engineers. It's clear that Engineering management lacks the experience and the motivation to run a team of 70+ engineers. Management lacks the ability to see the difference between someone in a role for five years and what someone has actually done in those five years. We've had a handful of engineers that have been fired because their resume looked great but they had done nothing during those many years of experience.
- Unfair/pitiful equity distributions. In order to earn equity, you must be a "Sr Engineer". Only some engineers have options and those that do have 2,500 options or less. The "future value" is often talked about when discussing total compenstation not the present day value which is only worth $3-5k/year. To put it into perspective, most of the C-Level staff have millions of stock options, and directors 10s of thousands.
- Lack of proper tooling. We continually focus on the Microsoft ecosystem ignoring what tool is actually best for the task at hand and instead settle for a Microsoft flavored tool. There is nothing wrong with Microsoft tools when they are actually the right tool for the job but often times we are using incorrect tools. Only recently, after many years with Carvana have we looked at other tools.
- Engineering Management attitude towards employees. Many engineers feel like replaceable units on a factory line. Comments made by management saying as much have been heard by many engineers. Many engineers find the culture to be incredibly demotivating and feel no responsibility for the company's well-being as there does not seem to be any for the employee.
- Incapable of attracting and cultivating top talent. With all of the cons listed above, it's clear that top talent does not want to work here. That shines through brightly when it comes to our struggle with getting qualified candidates in the door which further leads to a poor culture.
