STAY FAR, FAR AWAY - Software Engineer Happy Returns Employee Review

1.0
Dec 20, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

(Mostly) great people Remote work Some engineering and prod managers are fantastic

Cons

In short, the company values pushing out feature bloat as fast as possible. If you value cultural attributes like quality, strong technical leadership, learning and growth opportunities, and innovation this company is not for you. They hire SMEs and ignore them. There are almost zero upward mobility opportunities for engineers. Toxic EMs (two specifically, the rest are great), an absurdly democratic landscape where one incompetent manager can derail sound initiatives (C-suite often rewards them for it), and technically inept senior product management who had a short stint at Space X and reminds everyone every chance they get. The org values good "reporting up" and openly shares how they are not in favor of quality or sound technical solutions. The company was recently acquired by UPS and is in a perfect position for UPS to sever its ties with Happy Returns on a whim, which would almost certainly be its demise.

Explore other reviews about Happy Returns

5.0
Apr 27, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great pay and easy work

Cons

Not much growing and opportunities

4.0
Mar 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very flat hierarchy Small engineering org size Very open culture No legacy tech stack Lot of learning and growth for entry and mid level engineers

Cons

For an IC, Senior Engineer role is more or less saturated. If you are interested in manager role, senior engineer can be an EM. There is also Architect role beyond senior engineer. It has limited capacity and someone who is an architect should leave the company for one of the senior engineers to become an architect.

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