Square Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Square as an intern for less than a year

Pros – I got a ton of square gear and met many influential community business owner. Drove my entrepreneurial spirit to new heights. We had health benefits as interns and offered many other benefits since day 1.

Cons – Mainly worked on my own, no real face to face with square employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Offer more internships in the SF Bay Area

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Square part-time for less than a year

Pros – It's fun to work for a young innovative company that is growing and improving
Work at your own pace
Define your own hours and workspace
Very social and open community

Cons – It's a young company with young employee's that are still wet behind the ears
Supervisors are slow to respond to questions
Management is slow to reward for a job well done

Advice to Senior Management – Respond more quickly to employee's questions. Reward your employee's more visibly/publicly for a job well done.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Square full-time for less than a year

Pros – - Everyone pursues excellence.
- Everyone is masterful at their work.
- Everyone is very intelligent and many are over achievers.
- Numerous employees have founded companies previously. (Not just Jack!)
- Everyone is committed to the success of the company.
- Work is highly collaborative.
- We felt a collective swell of pride at the Starbucks deal.
- Everyone believes we're changing payments for the better.
- The work environment is an open, noise filled space. You can find a promo video on squareup.com.
- Communications are transparent across all teams. Meeting notes are available to everyone.
- The work itself is challenging, fast paced, and frequently changing.
- Leadership clearly communicates company goals and performance.
- Underperformers are let go.
- Confidential information is treated very seriously.
- The hiring bar is high and many, many candidates are interviewed and rejected.
- Teams joke around a lot, laugh a lot, and party together regularly.
- Employee retention is very high. Few people leave.
- Most people are upbeat and positive.

Cons – - Most employees work intensely for more than 10 hours a day.
- 50 to 70 hours a week is normal.
- Early stage employees tend to work very, very hard.
- There's a culture of workaholism and significant peer pressure to work until "it's done".
- Praise for an individual's good work is usually brief. The focus is on the team's success as a whole.
- There's hero worship of Square's founders.

Advice to Senior Management – Start encouraging people to rest. Your best people, especially your early employees, are repeatedly burned out. Make sure they take a proper break!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Square part-time for less than a year

Pros – Great pay, work your own hours, be social, no constraints, fun

Cons – Difficult to 'sell' to people sometimes, even though your actually not selling the product, but a lot of people are hesitant to try it

Advice to Senior Management – Don't have such a large turnover rate and kick students out of the internship after one semester

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Square

Pros – Square has a solid business model and due to all the over inflated PR and backing from pseudo celebrities it will do well financially. Square has a great product and could be a revolutionary and disruptive payment solution if navigated and built with the correct vision. Support is unique and offers great opportunities for project work if you are willing to first be a complacent subordinate that blindly follow orders and is willing to be emotionally and mentally abused by constant berating comments.

Cons – -No opportunity to offer independent ideas if they are not approved by management.
-Long hours with poor compensation
-Constantly reminded of "how lucky" you are to work for the company and threatened to be replaced
-Culture of fear
-No opportunities for growth
-Office politics and favoritism is the norm
-CEO was pushed out of Twitter because he did not know how to run a company and he still does -not...
-CEO currently asserts his 100% commitment to Square, yet still divides his time between Twitter -and Square
-No outlet to voice concerns
-Culture of fear
-Lack of transparency

Advice to Senior Management – Management should reflect on themselves and see beyond their titles to make informed decisions and help the team to grow. Management also should undergo a 360 review and take constructive criticism instead of firing away anyone who dares to question them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Square

Pros – - Not another SoMa social or web 2.0 VC draining cow, Square actually has a legit business model
- Company that encompasses hardware, software and services; well rounded - not just 1 and 0's
- Support isn't outsourced abroad, humans are involved in escalations
- Modern technology stack, many stable languages utilized, test driven development is the norm

Cons – - Extended and weekend hours are expected, only those who give up family and friends are advanced - regardless of actual contributions or knowledge
- Extremely young (in experience years) senior management, attempting to be a jr Steve Jobs and burning bridges quickly (both inside and outside the organization)
- Praise is given to a very narrow tech focus employee group, never the entire organization or whole teams
- Feedback is top down, never bottom up or 360
- One wrong attitude remark will quickly setoff a firing spree, has happened in many departments already
- Co-founder frequent shuffle, none of which seem to retain the same job or duties longer then a few months
- Weekly 'Town Square' all-hands events closely resemble a mega-church gospel, again another Apple knock-off
- Transparency inside and out are very minimal - no 800# listed on the web site

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Square full-time for more than a year

Pros – Square was the best place to implement my technical knowledge as well as there was a niceworking environment. I learned many things there.

Cons – The working hour should be flexible and there should be internet facility for every employee. The salary should be directly deposited to the bank.

Advice to Senior Management – I loved working at Square.

Former Employee – worked at Square

Pros – Incomparable benefits and perks, and unlimited vacation time.

Cons – Lack of interest in improvement for professional advancement

Advice to Senior Management – Listen and offer programs to improve overall professional development for employees