Opening up this forum to discuss Snapchat. Would love to hear insiders and outsiders having 1st hand info on: 1. I read that their offers are at the very top end of the market. Any corroborations? 2. Above also translates to a high hiring bar. Any past experiences? 3. How is the engineering culture? Does the company have a lot of obnoxious strong-armers or humble collaborators? 4. Do engineers love to come to work or do they just feel handcuffed by the high equity component in their offers? 5. Do people think that it's on an acquisition track or an IPO? 6. Any predictions on IPO, future vs current valuations? Thanks!
7. If I want to find a mature, collaborative and nice environment to work in, should I rather go to Uber or to Snapchat?
I don't know about Snap, but definitely not Uber. Worked there for 6 months and simply can't stand the politics and the lack of morality coming down from the top. People really don't care about others. It's a free for all and there is nothing mature, collaborative, or even nice about what they do.
Did you ended up leaving TAm?
Someone needs to mix Blind with SnapChat so you can send anonymous nude photos to other people in your industry...
Wow softies! You guys are big help.
Ugh.
Agree. And by "people" you mean softies like the two above.
Please excuse them, not all softies are that delusional.
So I've been a bit unhappy here at Snap for a number of reasons. Will refer to a Quora response as it reflect how I feel with exceptional accuracy. Especially the bit about the CEO
Snapchat is a company run by a 24 year old with a horrendous (and true) reputation for being pompous, unwilling to listen to others, and cultivating a culture of fear within the company. A quick google search of his name will provide all the evidence you need but I'll save you the time here: Confirmed: Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel Is Kind Of An Ass "Fuck Bitches Get Leid," the Sleazy Frat Emails of Snapchat's CEO Beyond that, many leaders within the company are far too young and inexperienced to manage growing teams - which is unsurprising when many were hired because they were friends with the CEO in college or even high school. It does not take long after starting to realize that far too many people are in over their head, and that the problem is feeding numerous other issues: managers refusing to hire more experienced candidates likely because they realize they're more qualified than they are, an inability to pay appropriate/market-rate salaries because the inexperienced manager has an (appropriately) low base, etc. Culture: Get on board, or get out. The first thing you need to do to be successful is CHUG the Snapchat kool-aid. Every Wednesday at 6pm you'll be required to attend a strangely ritualistic/cultish meeting with a handful of randomly assigned coworkers where you share information about your life to the group based on a prompt the group-leader has assigned. If you have a family, evening plans, or any semblance of a life - make sure you plan on cancelling it for all future Wednesdays. Also, if you're swamped with work and would rather stay at your desk to get it done instead of attend: forget it. You'll be shamelessly harassed and prodded to go to the cult meeting and share personal information with your coworkers instead. Aside from Wednesdays, make sure you plan on staying late pretty much every night, regardless of your workload because hours spent in the office are a key measure of success (typical with inexperienced management). The first person to leave any evening will be gawked at, and if you need to show up later one morning for any reason, be prepared for the scrutiny of a lifetime. Working at Snapchat feels a lot like that first hourly-shift job you had at the Mall in High School where you're not trusted to do anything without supervision. Speaking of trust, there is NONE here. On your first day you'll get a 3 hour "orientation" which is essentially a half day of hearing what you can't do, can't talk about, etc. They let you know from the very beginning that you're not trusted to speak about the company publicly, to know any details about products we're working on, any metrics around users/engagement/revenue, etc. etc. Orientation is such a tremendously negative experience, if you've been lucky enough to work for a company with a great culture, you'll probably realize what a mistake you've made a few hours into your first day. The icing on the cake is also the mass exodus of industry leaders from the company (another Google search and you'll easily find info on this). All of the departures are coupled with speculation that they were the results of a clash with the CEO. A perfect example of what it takes to be successful at Snapchat: not voicing your opinion. You need to be a minion comfortable with doing things as you're told, and never utilizing any best practices from your experience. This is likely why they highly favor hiring inexperienced people into the ranks. All in all, while I was only able to scratch the surface of how awful it can be to work at here, the point is that Snapchat is a truly toxic culture which is deeply committed to avoiding change. There is no amount of money that could make working at SC for 4 years worth the nightmare of spending 5 days a week in that environment. If you're considering working for Snapchat, but something in your gut is making you unsure, follow your instincts and go with your other options, or go unemployed until you find a place you can be happy. This is not that place
sounds like a classic case of "bozo explosion". I love the product. too bad it's going to end up like Twitter. great idea ruined by mismanagement.
I think it is the most interesting social platform and it has immense possibilities. I would be so much more excited to work there than uber.
But on a side note, having an office in Venice Beach is pretty awesome.
The first half of that Quora answer could've been Facebook when Zuck was that young. I wasn't at FB that early but there were a lot of young people and the description fits right in line with any young, successful culture where there's a lot of hubris and all the key people were early friends. I think where FB succeeded was in finally bringing in some senior, experienced people to get the company to the next level. Google had Schmidt. FB had Sheryl. Who is that person for Snapchat? I was going to write off most of that Quora answer because everything else seemed typical: overbearing leader, cult environment, etc. But the most damning part is the high profile people I've seen depart FB for Snapchat only to leave within a year. That looks like a bad sign to me.
As a user I love snap chat-- it's pointless, fun, easy way to kill time and have fun with friends. I have two former teammates who were nice people but just, my god.... Dummies. They both were let go, and within 5 weeks of each other popped up in big roles At snap chat. Maybe it's a better fit for them, but I would be shocked it the bar was high seeing as these two are there.
I thought you were gonna post nude snaps...
Troll