I've been interviewing at Hopper for a senior MLE position and I've heard very mixed things about the culture. The only data scientist review on Blind is pretty scathing, but it was someone who had just been let go.The interviewers have been sure to talk up WLB, unlimited PTO, and collaborative teams, but I'm not sure if I should buy it. Can anyone at Hopper help answer some questions for me? 1. How is WLB? How often are you working late nights and weekends? 2. How cutthroat is the culture? Should I expect to be made the fall guy for any/all ill conceived management decisions? Do people help each other out? 3. How bad is the Keeper Test? Some reviewers make it sound like Hopper's extremely eager to fire at the 1 year mark, but it's not clear how representative they are. This is for the fintech team. Blind tax: TC 120k, 2 YOE #machinelearningengineer #hopper
can you please share what were the various rounds of interviews you went through and what did they consist of?
Will change by team but generally a screening call (with recruiter or manager), a tech screen, and then a “loop” with 3 interviews (1 coding, 1 design, 1 hybrid) all starting with a bit of leadership principle stuff similar to Amazon. Then finally a bar raider with someone from the leadership team
Run for the hills DO NOT join Hopper
why not
I’m in the interview process, is it really that bad?
1. My own experience has been that wlb doesn't exist. However, I know of some people who do their 8-4/9-5 and are done. They have been at the company for a bit longer. 2. I think it depends on the team. I try to help people with their requests as much as possible but I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't make me feel like I'll be behind of my work because of that sometimes. 3. The keeper's test in my experience is such a bad idea, but that's my personal opinion. I've survived both.
My WLB is bad. I’m always working on weekends. I’ve seen a few people let go.
Yes, that's my experience as well, that's why I said wlb doesn't exist.
here is my feedback with the caveat that people’s experiences are team dependent. the leader of the team (the revenue leader) has extensive power over the considerations that you are asking about. 1. wlb has been fine (~40-50 hours / week), but i am working at a level of intensity and efficiency that is far above other roles that i have held. 2. it’s far from the best. i wouldn’t say cutthroat, but people are not fucking around. there are big expectations for everyone. we are trying grow by billions of dollars in value, and it’s doable. 3. i’ve seen people not make it. it’s real. but i think it comes down to not trying to oversell your value/competencies during the interview process, and clearly communicating and aligning on expectations. it’s intense, but not unfair. it’s important to call out that the compensation, autonomy, and ability to make an impact is also real. try to get to know your potential supervisor and be sure you trust them before you join.
Some bullet points: - Strong performers are consistently let go arbitrarily (aka the keeper test is an unchecked unilateral power) - if you negotiate a higher salary, that makes you more vulnerable to getting cut because they have to “justify” the keeper test - Immature leadership who don’t have managerial experience - Lots of favoritism, politics, gossiping, and throwing under the bus - A lot of finger pointing - Dark UX patterns that are intended to get more money from users all in the name of “revenue” - Top down coercion on what to build at the risk of your job (feature factory) - Charging users for bookings that don’t exist - Public disrespect from the leadership towards employees (yelling and aggressive messages in public Slack channels) The list goes on. The Hopper company channel on blind is super sad and somber and full of people worried about getting fired
Avoid if possible. Don’t put yourself through this
1. WLB is very team dependent, but ultimately I’ve seen many top performers maintain great WLB by taking on a scope they can manage and delivering within the hours they want to work. Nobody will force you to work hours that you don’t want to work, but it’s very much expected that you deliver on what you commit to doing, and that you’re adding value to the team. 2. I wouldn’t say it’s cutthroat but it’s certainly intense, and like I said above it’s very much expected that you perform and contribute to the team. But fall guys aren’t really a thing, people do help each other out. 3. The keeper test comes from Netflix, which I’ll mention because a lot of people seem to think it’s a uniquely Hopper thing to do. It’s like any other performance review, but the focus is on driving a clear yes/no as to whether someone should be on a team. I don’t think it’s particularly worse than any other review systems I’ve seen in terms of how strict it is. Most people pass, but obviously not every hire works out. I wouldn’t say anyone is eager to fire either - keep in mind that firing someone and having to backfill their role is a huge pain for a manager. The incentive is to keep people because that’s usually easier, and the purpose of the keeper test is to make sure managers really think about whether we’re only retaining people that are a fit. Also the comment about “strong performers getting let go arbitrarily” doesn’t make sense for the same reason - that goes against the manager’s and leaderships best interest. The comment regarding salary is true though - your comp is taken into account when evaluating performance. Meaning if you make 2x more than your peers, it’s expected that you perform at a much higher level than them. Which I think is fair.
Feel free to DM as well, I’m not on fintech but can answer more general Hopper questions.
The reason strong performers are let go arbitrarily is because management hasn’t come from merit, but from arbitrarily being there pre Covid. Strong performers are a direct threat to them maintaining power, especially since they aren’t their through meritocracy but seniority.
Keeper test is real, Ive witnessed some firing my self. WLB is okay if you can manage the team expectations out of you. they are big on meeting deadlines but they wont challenge your estimates so just make sure not to over commit. Culture is intense by design, you wont be allowed to rest and vest but that also means the ppl around you are the same so things do move fast. The one year mark is true, you are labeled a new hire for 10 month and you get a 3 month performance review and then a 10 month review where its decided if you are a good hire with good performance relative to your sallary or not.
This is pretty accurate, although at Hopper management sets the deadlines. So if you don't hit them, you can be made as the scapegoat. Seen it happen a couple of times. Best advice is to always keep working, if you're not ahead you're behind.
Very team dependent. This is definitely a key question to ask when interviewing.