Pros
Product market fit. Scale's offering is attractive to AI companies across lots of industries, providing some cushion against market fluctuations. When a new use case comes up, Scale is quick to bridge product gaps and expand the addressable market. Sharp, quick-moving team. Employees are generally smart and adaptable. It is inspiring to look at what's been built, and what challenges have been overcome, with a lean team. Personal development. Scale tends to give people ownership and see what happens, as opposed to testing people out extensively before granting them something to own. This is great for personal growth and broad experience. Additionally, in my experience managers have been proactive at thinking about their team members' personal development and securing opportunities for growth. These opportunities abound as the company grows. Improved recruiting plan. Since last year, the company's recruiting goals have gotten better: more focus on hiring people with long-term fit, and better visibility for candidates on what they might expect when they join. See "growth pains" point below for some context.
Cons
Growth pains. As other reviews illustrate, some teams have experienced big changes, operations team especially. The role requirements in that team have changed a lot in the past year as the company matured and scaled up. Operations people who were hired to do quality assurance have been increasingly asked to do different types of work. Not everyone has been able/happy to change their role in this way. But then again, this turbulence is understandable since people had been hired with a different role scope in mind. The team will probably continue to feel this pain for a while, but it seems like current hiring has a better focus on who to hire for long-term fit. Lean teams. All teams are lean. Works great... when it works. Other times, a combination of crunching and prioritization kicks in, but it is often painful especially when some teams aren't fully aligned.