Most dissapointing job of my career so far
Pros
- I think a lot of people at WeWork genuinely believe in the company mission, and want to make WeWork something great. - I really like the the WeWork product and think it is a great idea if done by a company that can execute it. - There is some effort to come off as a socially conscious company (meat free meals, volunteering can lead to company donations).
Cons
I joined WeWork via acquisition of a start up I was working at. I was really excited at first, but every day until my last day was discouraging - and WeWork did not meet my initial expectations in any way. I did not get to work on one project at WeWork that didn't fail for some reason outside of my control. There were multiple times that our dev team was given requirements for features to build over the next few weeks. We'd build exactly what is being asked for and stay in communication with stakeholders to make sure that we are staying aligned with the goals of the project. Upon completing the work required in our tech stack to launch, we'd be notified that for some reason (usually another part of the company not being able to execute the changes needed on their end) that the project was cancelled or "paused indefinitely". After failing to launch anything new with our project over the course of 4 months, our project was shutdown. The operations of our start up were closed. In summary, my time at WeWork looked like this: - Get acquired by WeWork. - Be excited to see what we can do with all of the new resources offered by a large company. - Repeatedly build tech, but have it not get used due to another part of the company not realizing the work needed for our project (operations in physical space, legal, etc) - Four months after being acquired, have the entire start up shutdown. Some more things I found really discouraging: - When we were acquired I asked to re-negotiate my contract, and was told I would be able to do that soon after starting at WeWork. I often reminded my manager that this is something I'd like to do, but it never actually happened. - The executive team really lacks diversity. - Rumors of layoffs hanging over everyone's heads for months. It really was the most disappointing stretch of my career so far. However, I will add the disclaimer that my time at the company really lined up with one of the most volatile times that WeWork has ever had. I think this may have contributed to my negative experience. That being said, I still would not personally give them another chance. They have already wasted enough of my time.
