Waymo reviews

(caution: my experience is idiosyncratic and after discussions with other Waymo data scientists they agree with some points and disagree with others. I think your experience will be better, but this is mine.) Hiring manager changed after accepting and signing offer. Never met new manager during interviews. Nor given say in new manager. Was told I was on a "fast track" to the next level within a year. After starting, management seemed to be unaware of such a claim (nor did they seem to care). Criteria I was evaluated on during interviews seemed to be weakly related to work I was performing. Selected San Francisco office but, after starting, strongly pressured to go to Mountain View office often. They seemed to insinuate that it would impact my performance reviews if I didn't go to Mountain View. Projects seemed to be mostly push instead of pull driven. Low demand for work. Was so strongly micromanaged to the point of only asking what to do next. Nearly every attempt to take initiative and be ambitious was shot down unless it was a prior idea from management. Attempts to change teams/managers were met with seemingly feign attempts to remedy the situation over several months. Censorship and/or prior-approval over what is posted on internal discussion boards/emails. Culture is fairly boring. I think my experience is fairly atypical and most data scientists have a better experience, but this is mine.

Compensation: the stocks are worthless so you only have base salary. The company's goal is not making revenue. It blows off every possibility of profitable business - L2&L3 and trucking due to poor business decisions. It is working on L4 robotaxi only to satisfy someone's ego. Work life balance: the company implicitly expects you to work 100+ h per week. You need to work on short term projects all over the year with deadlines every 1-2 month. You will barely have chance to sleep 1 week before each deadline. Culture: toxic. The company wants you to feel insecure so you work harder. And it's famous for really bad people managers.