LendUp Employee Reviews about "people"

Pros

Some great people trying help financially underserved.

Cons

I've debated about sharing my experience with LendUp, but since I see they're still branding their call center/customer service role as an "Account Manager," I've decided to write. I was grossly mis-sold the role of "Account Manager" when I interviewed to join the "Customer Insights" team at LendUp. The role was presented as though I was being hired to help build out a Client Relationship Management System, to catch bugs, and provide feedback to UX and product. However, shortly after on-boarding, I realized that I'd been tricked into working in a call center where I was judged on how many calls/emails I could get through in a day, and that my metrics were purely measured on how my "numbers" compared to my peers (all broadcast in real time on large flat screens!) Looking back, I don't know why I was hired in the first place. I wasn't a fit for the role, but I gave it my best and hoped that I'd be able to better apply my skills elsewhere in the company at some point. However, I didn't play the "game" as the team's leadership would have liked, and I eventually stopped kidding myself that anything would ever change in the toxic environment in which I'd found myself. Leaving LendUp was one of the best decisions I've ever made for myself. I'm thankful for the experience because it gave me insight on what I want in a role, a team, and a manager. It also taught me how to ask the right questions so I wouldn't end up in a dead-end , mis-sold position again. In conclusion, I'd like to give you who may be considering applying for the Account Manager role a hi-level overview of what your day will entail: -Have as many phone/emails interactions with LendUp's subprime short-term loan customers as you can. You’ll largely be assisting frustrated people with moving their due dates, resetting their passwords, and taking payments. You know when you call your bank or credit card company? Yeah, that. -Attend weekly performance reviews with your team-lead to review the aforementioned calls and emails you made/wrote since you last met. Takeaway: If you can check your brain at the door and turn into a robot between the hours of 8-6, YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR CALLING! Just don't let yourself be fooled that you're getting your foot in the door of a tech company with room for advancement. You'll be low on the totem pole, you'll feel like you don't have a voice, you'll get burned out, and you'll leave. At least if you're smart. And guess what? No one will care because there will always be someone to replace you!

Pros

+ Mission that rings true to my heart. LU is providing a path to better financial health + Convenient location in the heart of downtown Oakland + Catered Lunches and sticked kitchen + Top tier health benefits + Unlimited PTO + Positive middle managers that look out for the best interest of their teams + A tough CEO that I believe has what it takes to build a company

Cons

- COO that seems to have taken over the business with very little experience - there really does seem to be a major lack of focus and energy within the office. seems to be getting worse with time - not anyone's fault, but the building has had major issues since I have started everything form heating and cooling, plumbing, elevator. There are days when it is way too cold in the office it's hard to put in the best work - LU hit on a few nice cultural events like Chinese New Year and Holi, but totally missed the boat on Black History month. Not even a single mention or email was sent out to recognize this which was a bit strange - LU seems to keep priding itself on diversity and inclusion and empowering women, but it just seems a bit pandering on delivery coming from People Operations. Posting our pics on the big screen and on Linkedin daily are a bit over the top - A product that may not do so well with a recession, soon to be a depression. Customers will not pay back - Faulty customer tool that breaks every other day - LU seems to have a hiring problem. Losing more people than hiring. People Operations is nearly at a 100% turnover rate - Not the most transparent executive leadership team - Haven't had a company offsite in a very long time - Executive are quite awkward with people in general. Having a conversation is like pulling teeth - Company does not do annual compensation adjustments and promotions rarely happen

Pros

amazing people to work with

Cons

no cons except for financial industry has a lot of regulation

Pros

Just joined the company and am so impressed by my team and the entire organization. It's amazing to see so many passionate people disrupting an entire industry for the better. I love how the focus is on the customers and empowering them with tools that will make them better participants in our socio-economic ecosystem. In a world that is filled with companies constantly screwing people over, and scams it's a breath of fresh air to work for an organization making positive impact in the world!

Cons

The pay is less than what you might find at other companies, but money isn't everything and I'm thankful to work for company that is mission driven and fulfilling.

Pros

As a startup employee you typically want to look for a product the customers love, a solid growth trajectory and an experienced executives. LendUp has all three.

Cons

People management is largely unresponsive to people who are underperforming. Slackers on the in crowd get to hang around and vest while you're heads down working away.

Pros

The leaders that run the company are some of the smartest people you'll ever meet. Free lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.You'll get to choose make your own path if you can really prove yourself to the company. You can take PTO fairly often.

Cons

At the end of the day, it's a call center job. Pay is extremely low, especially for utilizing some very bright fresh graduates. Favoritism is very apparent in the office as well. The Richmond office and SF office are completely different even though they try very hard to mirror the culture.

Pros

Given my last review was voted 'most helpful', I wanted to update it after ~1 year at the company for both insiders and potential candidates to get a more transparent look at what's changed since we are a company that is going through rapid change. 1) Still engineering/data driven. This means we focus on building and investing in technology first. There is a reason why we are scaling orders of magnitudes better than big banks! Had a recent hackathon for the first time and talented folks across departments built some really things - servicing tool written in purescript, real-time chat bot, static analysis tools, etc. 2) Our social mission is very clearly the top priority and last say in decision-making. It is really easy to see the passion some of my coworkers have for making a difference in our customers' financial lives. It is personally incredibly rewarding to be working for a company that is making such a huge difference. In 2016, we saved customers an estimated $18.3m dollars (this study is available on our blog) and raised their credit scores by a significant amount. We can't save our customers that much without our business is doing well- we are able to undercut and provide better services than existing lenders, and we choose to do so 3) Transparency- It's clear to me that the executive team and management places a big emphasis on gathering feedback and listening to employees concerns. If you read some our more recent reviews, you may be concerned but Sasha and Jake have addressed and discussed every single one multiple times (will elaborate on this more in the con section) 4) Comp/benefits are getting bumped up as we get more funding! We are more at the median level now but to be more competitive hiring, we should be in the top quartile. 5) Unlimited vacation - people are skeptical of this but it's real and people take advantage of it! Most people I see take the equivalent of a week off per quarter. 6) Diversity and inclusion. The people here really care about diversity and inclusion because they are central to our mission - we are trying to bring in a (huge) group of people that is currently excluded by our financial system. This has led to redefining our company values, renaming all conference rooms after influential women/POC, formation of a Black Lives Matter book club, and employee-initiated volunteering. 7) There has been recent bad press from the CFPB ruling but if you read what the violations actually were, it is amazing we have so few and minor mistakes in such a heavily regulated and scrutinized industry (most of the violations were failure to display certain text disclosures back when LendUp was super young). Heck, even TransUnion and Equifax got slapped with a fine recently and their compliance/legal departments are probably bigger than our whole company. This is no excuse but I can say with integrity that we've never made a product decision that hurts the customer.

Cons

Focus on eng/data means other departments often get overlooked or left behind. This is a general problem in tech, not just at LendUp. Specifically, most of the recent negative reviews have been from folks leaving from our Customer Insights/Account Servicing department. This is incredibly unfortunate- as someone who has worked closely with many of them on a day to day basis I know how valuable their product expertise is. From talking to some insiders, the gist of what happened is we hired an incredibly bright, excited (and overqualified) team at low pay in exchange for career opportunity. The day to day job is mostly account servicing and handling customer calls and through this you get valuable exposure to our users and the product. I've seen many of our CI agents get promoted and moved around into different teams with paths to become data analysts or work in product. There is a LOT of career growth opportunity here but not everyone gets this same opportunity because at the end of the day we still need folks to answer calls and there are a limited number of internal positions open. The result has been high turnover on this team and a decision to outsource most of our servicing to Richmond, VA where it is much cheaper to hire. I still believe the future is bright for the company but it's unfortunate we lost some good people from CI (most left before a year) who left disgruntled and bitter at management.

Pros

Good people to work with

Cons

Not enough resources for such big goals

Pros

Good people with a misson

Cons

Did not meet all expectations

Pros

1. Great Mission: It feels amazing knowing that the work I'm doing is making a real impact and helping people that usually have no where else to turn 2. Smart & Driven Coworkers: As a junior engineer its awesome knowing that I'm working with and learning from some of the smartest people around 3. Awesome culture: While working here you feel a strong sense of ownership and are encouraged to speak your mind or fix anything that you feel is broken. I've never felt more free at any other company 4. Exciting: We are always trying to move quickly and taking on new and exciting projects. As a junior engineer this is a big plus since I am never bored! 5. Fun: Everyone is always smiling and very friendly. Friday happy hours are really fun

Cons

I wish I could drive my car into work. But thats the price you pay for working in the city!