Pros
GoCardless is a great company at face value, with a very positive economic future on paper. I always found the belief of top-level leadership in the vision of the company very compelling. Hiroki, and most of the C-suite around him always struck me as great people, who communicate relatively openly, and are genuinely compassionate about the people making their organisation great. The (London) office is rather nice. Company events were well thought out. Benefits and salary package are very impressive. Most of the folks you’ll meet around the office are smiling and easy to get along with. They’re extremely passionate about diversity. A few reviews down suggest not working here if you are a non-white-male. I couldn’t disagree more, in fact, I couldn’t think of a better FinTech to work for if you fall in that category! I think, alongside Direct Debit, diversity is GC’s #1 passion. Most of the processes in the company are well thought out. Onboarding is mostly seamless. The engineering culture was very pragmatic, and typically things are well considered and carefully built. There are some very intelligent engineers, and usually the principal engineers are approachable and willing to answer questions, so that was great. It was rare that I got to work with them, personally, but when I did, I found the experience valuable.
Cons
Sadly, however, it’s not all sunshine and roses. GoCardless's mid-senior level management is extremely toxic. The ship is sinking under the rising tide of nepotism. I'm not going to go into too much detail on the cons, because it's sad to focus on negatives. There are really damning aspects and I'm not sure I could fit them all in the Glassdoor text limit. For instance - many of the engineering managers are pals outside of work, and therefore if an employee gets on the bad side of one, it’s unlikely said employee will have an unbiased audience of managers to speak with should they encounter difficulties at work. This creates a very stressful, prison-like workplace. I think it’s also fair to say that technically I regressed during my time at GC. Things move painfully slowly. The tasks are generally fairly menial. Most of the cool stuff has already been built. I think, however, I became a lot smarter as to what sort of politics can go on at medium sized organisations. A valuable, yet shocking experience. An Al Pac quote from the 1992 movie, “Scent of a Woman” somewhat summarises what is going on at GoCardless, on the footsoldier-level, which I think the execs are unfortunately probably oblivious to: “You're building a rat ship here. A vessel for sea-going snitches. And if you think you’re preparing these "minnows" for manhood, you better think again. Because I say you are killing the very spirit this institution proclaims it instills!” I could only summarise by saying, approach GC with caution! Good luck.
