1. The cool in-office perks don't excuse the minimal benefits.
- Virtually no 401k matching.
- Limited time off.
- Health insurance was nominal at best. $500 / month for basic coverage. (It's 2021, heath care should be covered).
- minimal paid holidays
- No equity or ability to generate ownership of the company.
2. The smart people are so overworked that learning opportunities are not abundant. This is no slight on the devs and product team - they jump in as much as they can, including overnight. But they don't have the resources to train the rest of the company on how the software actually works.
3. You will quickly find that the carrot-stick of "ample opportunity to grow" grows tiresome. If you aren't raising your hand, or even threatening to quit, you won't get noticed unless something goes wrong. And that's just the US based team. I sincerely feel for the teams working abroad. They have even less chance for advancement.
4. You will quickly find out that the "Principles" that are espoused at every all-hands and culture meeting are the first things to go if something is wrong.
- "Keep a blue head" turns into "Who is taking the fall for this mistake?"
- "Sweep the sheds" turns into "We'll just hire admin staff to handle basic things like scheduling" or semi-passive aggressive emails sent out to the entire company.
- "No Egos" turns into "Well, they make us a lot of money, so it's ok that they aren't following process" or "I'm right because I'm your manager"
- "Leave the jersey in a better place" turns into "make someone else document this, I'm too busy right now"
5. The nepotism is downright offensive sometimes. If you have any relation to the leadership, you can have a job at a much higher pay than starting analysts, and be shielded from the same repercussions that everyone else gets subjected to.