Great place to work, have a say in the workplace, no BS - Senior Data Engineer Upstart Employee Review

5.0
Apr 11, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- It might be easy to roll your eyes when people from Upstart say how open their culture is, but it's true; it's more open than any other place I've worked at (in the last 13 years). At a company wide-level, financial success & distress, public incidents, important non-public business metrics are all openly discussed. You can ask questions about them and anything else (yes, nothing is Off-Limit!) directly to the founders, CEO, CTO directly at the weekly Q&A. - One great thing about Upstart, in contrast to other comparable lending companies, is how we have a pretty singular focus "to help people achieve Financial Fitness". This sentiment echoes across the board...where we count our success "by not the number of loans originated BUT by the number of people we have helped attain financial fitness " - Highest rating on Credit Karma and great reviews and feedback from the folks we have helped. I read back to myself, a new feedback everyday which makes my belief in our mission more stronger!! - I own and have a the say in my engineering department which makes this a perfect place to work for me. Opportunities to grow and contribute are endless here and all you need is commitment, ownership and skill to have it....no BS or work-politics here! - Finally, my yet another favorite: if you aspire to work on the latest and the greatest bleeding edge technology then this is where you got to be! I have been working on the newest cloud based technology stuff (IaaS, PaaS)...which is a great career development - Great tech budget, fully stocked kitchen, meal reimbursement, no cap on vacations

Cons

- Need more company outings and social gatherings

Explore other reviews about Upstart

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Promising product, competitive pay, lots of work

Cons

Unstable, leadership is hit or miss

1.0
Jul 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive pay, work travel opportunities

Cons

When working at Upstart, your chances of being laid off is not an if but when it will happen to you. In the nearly 5 years I worked there, I managed to survive 4 or 5 major layoffs, resulting in reporting to 7 different managers and 2 temporary managers, either due to them being laid off or leaving of their own accord. All of the managers I had were supportive, some more than others, only bc a couple couldn't provide specific feedback bc they didn't oversee the programs I worked but they were the backbone of this company. It does not bode well when the new director of your team immediately comes in and says if she could have fewer people on her team, she would get rid of as many people as possible. When one of the cities that Upstart is located was experiencing a heatwave and many employees were experiencing electricity shutoffs to help the grid, Upstart's CEO responded with a complete lack of empathy or understanding. Upstart's response for damage control was providing slightly more sick time hours. Unfortunately, layoffs are quickly glossed over and ignored here. If you keep your head down and echo the "culture," you may last long enough to see a lateral raise but it's a numbers game. Once your anxiety starts working up over every announcement, all hands meeting, company wide email, it's a matter of time when your role will be eliminated.

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