Exactly what I wanted for my career, but there is work to do.
Pros
When I was evaluating where I could go next, I wanted to find an opportunity that would push me technically and professionally, where people worked as hard as I did, and I could grow fast and see what fast looked like. Well, I've been at Scale for about 6 months now, and it's pretty much exactly what I was expecting, and I don't have regrets. I've found my co-workers to be some of the smartest and kindest people I know, and I have indeed been growing fast and getting more and more responsibility. I find the work really interesting, we truly already have a dream list of customers we're working with on a daily basis and I feel like we're just getting started. I think we're really on to something here from a technology and business perspective. We're solving the hard problems, and sure enough, it's hard. I've found Scale to be more or less responsive to feedback with meaningful changes implemented already since I've joined.
Cons
As you're reading these reviews on Glassdoor, you see a big divide - It's essentially the scale business (revenue and engineering) giving great reviews, while the "supply" side overseeing labeling quality and throughput is voicing their experience with a lack of work-life balance and support. When I joined Scale, this was indeed a reality and in some ways, still very much is. I acknowledge I'm in the camp of Scale's salaried employees personally. That said, I do think the people running these teams now have really taken the time to understand those past experiences of what being a contract employee at Scale was like and make meaningful improvements. The entire company is intimately aware of these issues and is working on ways to improve balance, provide meaningful advancement opportunities, and ensure compensation is fair. There's still A LOT to address, but I do think we're on the right path. I am married and strive to have some semblance of a work-life balance. That said, I love to work, I love the hustle mentality, and I think it is what has brought a lot of success to Scale. We do what seems impossible to deliver on a regular basis. My previous employer had a lot of complacency and wasn't really going anywhere, I didn't want that for my next opportunity. Moving past the supply side, the cons of going fast is that a lot of the "basics" in terms of processes and systems one would expect to be in place at a billion-dollar company are simply not there yet. For better and for worse, it's a very green field of opportunity. I love it, but it sure as heck is not for everyone.
