Not an engineering role. Will need to relocate at some point to Boston, which is crazy to consider as I’ve never even been there! It seems like a great (and growing) brand, but I hear mixed reviews here and from personal contacts. How is the culture in the Boston office? How is Boston, for that matter? I’m currently in Seattle. Current TC: 150k #e-commerce #retail #Boston
Just an FYI, Chewy loves to make huge promises on comp and RSUs and then fire you right before vesting. There’s lots of terrible management that makes doing a good job hard even if you are ordinarily a good worker. Definitely do due diligence on your team. If you see a bunch of ex-employees on LinkedIn with strong backgrounds at prestigious companies who flamed out at Chewy, you can make an assumption that it’s not the employees fault but rather a failure of management.
If they are ex-employees, how would I know about them and look them up on LinkedIn? Genuinely curious how you would research such a thing. Thanks for the input. I’m hearing mixed things for sure.
Not sure if LinkedIn still allows this, but you can search ex-employees in people search. I am ex-MBB and used it to find where people from my company went after leaving.
Let me tell you this - Firing employees is extremely common at Chewy. IMO incoming resources find the total comp very attractive - but after joining they feel exhausted and discouraged because of the shit show here. There are lot of opportunities for growth but the daily job is greatly affected by stupid decisions by senior leadership. Most of the days it feels like the process controls you rather than you controlling the process. On top of it, lower level employees get blamed and eventually get fired while the directors and managers are usually spared. There were times when even directors and Sr managers were getting fired or they would leave within few months of joining. There are frequent org changes as wel and the new leader will change the goals and objectives of the entire team and easily point fingers at the bottom level employees for not delivering. Anyone in merch or supply chain (afaik ) would agree but it could be different for your team.
Are you in the Boston office? Any difference there?
This is dead on. Lots of idiotic decisions or abrupt mid-course corrections with little thought and then when it fails, typically people below director levels take the hit. I worked on a project that was a VP special pet project and when I found that it was a bad idea via analysis, I was told to change the analysis to show that it was a good idea. When it failed and my analysis made me look like an idiot to Sumit/Jim, it definitely wasn’t the VP who took the blame lol.
Chewy has tried to get me to join on two different roles. Did not find comp compelling until Y4 when multiple tranches of rsus vest. Slogging out at L6 is better financially
Yeah this is an L6 role. But on the design side.
Boston is a shithole.
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If you're into pets woof!!!! Otherwise mehh
Chewy is notorious for being bad! Super stressful and horrible culture. Boston is not a great city either, cold and rainy. Think twice.
Well. I’m used to the rainy here in Seattle. 😬
It is cold in during the long winter here, but less rainy and a whole lot sunnier than Seattle.
Update: I’ve accepted the role at Chewy, largely due to their growth trajectory and because culture seems to be at least (a bit) better in the product design group. Will be working remotely at first, which will give me time to get settled into the role before moving at some point, assuming my read on the team is accurate and I want to do so.
Good luck!
Post updates
Boston’s great... winters arnt that bad to be honest. I feel in my life they’ve gotten easier each year. Thank you global warming?
Yay! Someone who likes Boston! 🙌 But boo for global warming obviously.
+1
Boston's a great city. Safe, walkable, plenty of parks, and a ton of history. The downside is it's expensive to live in the city proper, and New England winters can be tough. I can't speak to the company culture overall, but from an engineer's perspective it's never been great and has declined since the pandemic started. The upside is the compensation can be quite nice when you factor in RSUs. Try to get as much as possible, and don't forget to factor in Massachusetts's state income tax when making your decision.
Thanks for the insight! My role would definitely interact regularly with the engineering org, so I’m curious to hear more. (I’m on the design side.)
I think design teams are generally healthier than engineering ones, but I would try to get a designer's input if you can. From my perspective, the main concern is WLB. Devs are under a lot of pressure to deliver on tight deadlines while also dealing with a lot of tech debt and production issues.