An honest review - Software Engineer Handshake Employee Review

1.0
Jan 27, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you are stuck working with an old tech stack at some random non-tech company, handshake could be your way into modernizing. The engineering team is so small you’ll be able to get hands on with a lot of the stack. Some of the engineers are very talented and you can learn a lot from them. For now there is no RTO.

Cons

The previous reviews that are negative are not exaggerating. The recent positive ones are very misleading and are probably mandated. CEO is not inspiring. I get founded this company and gets emotional but he needs to move on. The new CTO probably wants RTO because he seems to dislike zoom and needs people around him. I have mixed feelings about the CTOs direct reports. Some managers are good. Current manager is the the type to throw you under the bus. Code quality standards are very low. Some senior engineers have never worked in proper large scale projects. I think a lot of people join with the intention to use Handshake as a proving ground to move on to something better. Documentation is confusing, you basically search Slack. The push to only hire in SF for the core teams is dumb and probably driven by fear. Who ever had that idea is probably trying to show the CEO “look we are here working hard”. Wild West when it comes to planning. Some teams do it well, others just do it by word of mouth and random Google docs (guess jira doesn’t exist). Since joining over a year ago I have never felt stability and worried about being laid off constantly.

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Handshake Response
2y
Thank you for sharing your feedback; we appreciate all insights, whether positive or critical (and we promise: we’ve never mandated that anyone write a positive review!). Our new CTO joined Handshake a few months ago and is committed to making improvements across the organization – no one wants code quality to be low, or documentation to be confusing. Our Leadership Team takes internal surveys and data very seriously, which is why we encourage employees to be candid in their responses and comments. We appreciate the honest feedback that employees have provided through these mediums, and it’s helped us focus our efforts on key areas for our people.

Explore other reviews about Handshake

5.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work at your own pace.

Cons

Task limit when new to project.

2.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It's flexible and sometimes the money is OK. I got paid most of what they owed me.

Cons

Generally disorganized. The task I was on was one of the more highly paid ones but it was almost impossible to actually do in the allotted time. You aren't supposed to use AI but I think people must. The tasks run far over the time they are supposed to take. The human review system also seemed almost arbitrary. Reviewers did not have the subject matter expertise they claimed to. You will make less than the advertised hourly rate because the tasks routinely take longer than they say they will. If they have averages that are lower, those people are either not submitting accurate hours (there is incentive not to) or are using AI to train AI, which is a bigger problem (but not yours).

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