Pros
Despite its flaws, Stellar has managed to hire some good people. This is likely due to its good compensation and potential financial upside compared to other technology companies, as well the low bar set by other cryptocurrency companies as most lack legitimacy. Some of the people working at Stellar are great; they're talented and enjoyable to collaborate with. However, while these individuals bring a lot of culture and life to the organization, they are exceedingly rare and are in the exceptional minority. There are many, many other organizations with a much higher percentage of their employees that are great to work with. Working remotely (especially as a developer) is a strong suit of the company — it's very flexible towards this, and it allows the best opportunity to capitalize on compensation and an isolated set of priorities while shielding yourself from the organization's problems. Some of the most satisfied people at the company work remotely from its major offices. Finally, a lot of new management was brought on to fix many of the problems that exist, but it is worth scrutinizing whether these endemic problems are even possible to solve at this point, and if a competitor (of which there are many) will just eat their lunch.
Cons
Working at Stellar is best compared to working for a large government: it is a highly dysfunctional organization that is only still enabled by its how it uniquely funds itself, containing a mix of individual contributors who believe strongly in its goals, along with those who thrive on its internal political structure, and those waiting to retire. Unfortunately, it lacks a lot of the long-term benefits as well as a sense of purpose when working for a government, and Stellar is a fraction of the size with respect to its number of employees. Due to it funding itself entirely with a currency it created, it becomes very clear working there for a short period of time that if it had to struggle like any other startup looking for capital that it would have failed abysmally many years ago. In particular: - Management (especially senior management) mostly comes in two flavors: grossly incompetent, or tyrannical. It is rare to find quality leadership, and the best people typically side with the latter (working to stay on the good side) and work around the former. This isn’t an organization where leadership enables you, full stop. - Nepotism is very prevalent among leadership. - SDF lacks a distinctive culture — the company can feel drastically different depending on where you work. Remote workers (of which there are many) have very different perspectives of the organization, often due to having a very narrow lens at which they see SDF. While this has improved, it's unlikely to ever be great at this point of growth. - There is a lack of drive to actually move things forward; it feels far too sluggish for an organization its size. Anyone who has worked at a startup where everyone is driven by common purpose will notice the distinct lack of direction and comradeship that causes companies to be successful in execution. While some of the organization's successes have been driven by Steve Jobs-esque dictatorial direction, leadership often lacks vision as well as personal stake in the long run. - It often seems that the company's leadership has lost the drive to make the technology and organization successful; many actions seem to be driven by ego, or much more common is the obligation to not let it fail given its public nature as well as personal obligations (see above on nepotism). This is also likely aided by the fact that much of the senior leadership has amassed wealth in previous ventures. This can be best seen when compared to its most similar competitor — Ripple has dominated in partnerships, marketing, hiring, raising capital, and seems to have a much more singular drive towards success. - There is a lack of any real career development — the field is incredibly niche, mentorship (both in receiving it and giving it) is practically non-existent, and the organization does not lend any real credibility when looking at new opportunities. There is also a lack of honest feedback culture, and a lack of investment and care for people’s growth in the long run. People are regularly cut out without direction or feedback as to why, leaving many employees consistently on edge about where they stand. - In addition, there are some of the challenges of the space itself, such as the fact that blockchain invites a lot of scammers and terrible entrepreneurs. The best people are simply not going into this space, something that becomes readily apparent when working with partners in other spaces. Overall, it's a 2/5 — no organization is perfect, but my own experiences have shown that you can do much better with your next opportunity.