Pros
Many learning opportunities: generous education stipend, workshops & classes (JavaScript with Kyle Simpson, Management with Lara Hogan), 5 days allocated for Learning Days. Depending on your team, you can have the power and autonomy as engineers to make product and technical decisions. You are given opportunities to lead sprint tickets, even if you’re not the most senior on the team. Not all teams are like this unfortunately. “Diverse” in the sense there is a wide range of ages, Indian and East European consultants, parents/caretakers. Some people have been here 5-40 years. 401k 6% matching, egg freezing and infertility coverage, generous wfh budget.
Cons
Legacy code, being on-call, things move slow because of bureaucracy and because NYT is an old company. The bad players don’t get fired. Have witnessed misogyny and incompetency. Hard to connect with each other because the tech org is like 2000 people. Even when we were in the office it was hard to meet new people outside of your team and desk area. Both offices in Midtown and LIC aren’t set up with great common spaces for people to start conversations. Sure maybe the kitchenette on each floor, but ppl go in and out because the area is small. Senior leadership is accessible and approachable. There are problems with diversity in the newsroom and in tech. The pay is alright compared to other companies this size, you’re mostly there for the mission. 10% bonus is great and depending on the company’s profits and your performance, you can get more than 10%. It was hard to negotiate the initial salary that came with the offer, which is too bad because somehow there are varying salaries for the same level. Really hard to get promoted to lead engineer.
