Myth1: it’s a hyper-growth startup and therefore has lots of growth opportunities for an engineer. - No. The first part may be true, but the promo velocity here is slower than Google due to reasons like not having a culture of growing people, uncontrolled favoritism, randomly high bar for promos. Myth2: the scope of work is larger than at FAANG - In reality it’s smaller for most people. There are too many L6 and above hired directly from FAANG without proper scope. In many orgs L6+s are 40-50% of the population which is very unhealthy. Even at L6, most people can’t own an area. Most people at L5 and below are doing DevOps work. Some for many years. Myth 3: there are lots of smart colleagues so one can learn a lot from them. - Smart yes. However the company is very bad at hiring the right people for their expertise. Due to chaos in hiring, most people are placed in domains completely irrelevant to what they are good at, so they are not very effective and there’s little to learn from them if you’re a domain fit for that area. Think again before joining.#tech #databricks
This was the feeling I got when I interviewed with them as well. It wasn't clear if they were intentionally wasting time trying to figure out their strategy or it was an accidental coincidence fueled by chaos.
For a small company and small product space compared to your usual FAANG, it's kinda obvious there won't be a need of so many L6 and above. It's typical of startups to bloat title and good you are confirming the same. Maybe make more sense if they acted like Netflix a few years ago with flat level and pay a higher base. Not much long until people stop buying the paper money hype.
Well, they are a very technical product, so it makes sense to have many high level ICs. It’s the same at snowflake, BigQuery, etc. Those L6+ are not the “leader” type but the “expert” type. I haven’t worked at Databricks but heard same stories as OP’s post from other people. Too bad cause it would be a good fit for my next role.
There are very very few technical L6 IC in the market who can code on their own and get things running. Most operate as consultants. So I doubt DB managed to find 50% technical L6 IC. It should be a lot harder.
Any suggestions for interviews? :)
Wow this is copy + paste Doordash's culture
Is that true when for Data Science and analytics vertical at Doordash?
Yes
Looks like someone is getting PIP’d ?
Stop being so cynical.
Databricks will struggle to maintain its growth rate. It's hot. But a lot of people have never burned their hands at startups.
I’m prob biased, but I think the ongoing ai wave will be very good for Databricks growth
Yes, we may even accelerate in next years to come
Gee man, what's gotten into you? I find it the best place I've ever worked. Was recently promoted, have and always had great scope, been very content with the work and the challenges, and I've hands down learned the most in my career during my years here. Sorry your experience is different, but our churn rate tells a different story.
It’s a bad market and Databricks has not had layoffs. Also there’s a carrot of IPO and paper money. That’s why the churn rate is relatively low. But many around me would leave asap when there’s a good opportunity elsewhere.
I’ve been hearing people are stock there because they are waiting for IPO. Is that true ?
Are you TechLead? Is this why you went awol from posting vids?
Didn’t that guy go to jail for fraud and some crypto stuff?
Myth 1 (growth opportunities): Eh, kinda agree with you Myth 2 (scope): Hard disagree. Worked for 3+ teams across orgs and all 3 had much larger scope than I’d expect for my level. Myth 3 (don’t learn much): Hard disagree again. All the smart people I’ve worked with love to help, explain opinions, and help juniors grow. And maybe it’s just the 3+ teams I’ve been on, but the L6+s are all very familiar with the domains.
Ppl who got promoted to L6 or have been at DB for a while are extremely capable. For all other hiring managers out there, if you have a candidate who got promoted from L5 to L6 at DB, they are definitely a 10x engineer. However, A LOT of new hire L6s, especially if they are clear nepotism hires are extremely ass. Like I’m talking have been here for one year and still have not contributed anything meaningful type of ass. Unfortunately they will not get piped because they are protected by their boss who brought them in
There are also nepotism promos. For example people who got promoted from 5 to 6 with no project launch or with projects done by other poor souls but claimed by the manager to be theirs. So while you said is somewhat true for people who got promoted internally, it’s getting worse and worse now. And ofc the nepotism L6 hires are pure trash.
Good insights . Thank you . Any news on IPO? Do you think it’s a good opportunity $ wise ?
Can’t provide any details, but the company has not IPOed even after a few years of hype.
I'm planning on selling NVDA and buying DB in the secondary market. Please don't let me down.