Yelp Engineering Levels/Culture?
Evaluating an offer and have some questions. What do the Yelp levels mean? Does it progress like Amazon levels? Is IC3 senior? Is it a good place to be an engineer? Is the morale high? Good culture? Good learning opportunities? Are there any talks of free food? Are the benefits good and is the low PTO sufficient? How's the location? Why did I see so many engineers who have been there for 4+ years? TC 200K. 4 YOE. Offer is comparable to levels.fyi
Levels.fyi
What is the offer
Peanuts higher than my current TC but I'm in Seattle.
IC3 is the terminal individual contributor level. IC4-6 is tech lead types of engineers. 4yoe @ 200k is a good offer.
> Is IC3 senior? It's about the median. It takes a relatively long time to go from IC3 to IC4 (2-ish years). > Is it a good place to be an engineer? Is the morale high? Good culture? Good learning opportunities? It varies a LOT by team. I'm pretty happy on my team. Generally infra teams seem better than feature teams. > Are there any talks of free food? Nope. Typical tech office free snacks of course, but they got rid of even free Friday lunches a while back (they claimed due to logistics). Kinda BS. > How's the location? It's great if you want to work in SF. It's right next to Montgomery BART. Hard to find a place easier to commute to, especially from the East Bay. > Why did I see so many engineers who have been there for 4+ years? Not sure. I would actually say it's typically the opposite, we have very few senior people and tons of new grads.
IC3: I wouldn’t exactly say it’s the median, but it is a terminal level, meaning that as long as you perform up to level, you won’t get hired. You can be a tech lead at IC3, but you’re probably doing some things at IC4 level at that point, anyway. Infra vs features: I would actually say backend vs front end myself, but sure. Location: Hell yeah, 5 minute walk from BART, unless you want an extra 10 minute walk in the morning and get off at Embarcadero. 4+ years: probably those people are more likely to put their info into levels.fyi.
My team has been going out to lunch on the company card a few times a month, but other than that you're on your own for the most part. There are some free options (ramen, frozen burritos, sandwiches), but I got bored of those pretty quick. I don't believe there are any talks of catering lunch for the employees. The location's pretty good, assuming we're talking about SF. Tons of restaurants within walking distance. Right off the BART line. I don't have any complaints about the benefits, but I don't know how the compare to other companies. I do have to plan out my PTO a little bit, but we have unlimited sick days, so take that as you will. I like my team quite a bit, but I think morale and culture varies by team. 1.5 YOE 167 TC IC 2 iOS Eng
IC3 is equivalent to a senior role at other companies. The benefits are okay - they're starting to make us pay for some portion of health insurance, which is really annoying. 401k match and PTO are also really underwhelming.
Parental leave is 8 weeks which is less than many other places.
It does seem to be one of the more chilled out places I've been to, so WLB is pretty good. Engineers on most teams seem to do 7 hour days (10:30 to 5:30) with a solid hour long lunch and get away with it. If you have a hobby you care about or a family, this is a good place to be.
OP, any update? Are you planning to join us in SF?
I just saw this. No I didn't end up taking it. I negotiated for TC 270k which is about equivalent to my Seattle 200k but that was including sign-on/relo so I was worried about my year 1/year2 TC. Also, I saw myself jumping ship in a year or two, hating life outside of work in SF, and having to move to Oakland to afford a 1BR. Maybe for FAANG/more money I would make the jump but it wasn't worth it for now. On the bright side, the recruiting process was one of the best I've ever had. Fair questions, really sociable interviewers, and just really good vibes overall. Most FAANG interviewers are nerds in a hoodie asking Leetcode Hards in a thick accent, not the case at Yelp.
Sounds about right all around. We take a lot of pride in having a good interview process, and especially on the candidate experience. Not too surprised they weren’t able to pay what you needed, either. :/
Don’t take it
Why? How’s the culture at yelp with engineering and applied ML
Why?