NerdWallet Reviews

Cons

-As the company has continued to grow, I've felt that there has been more unnecessary bureaucracy and processes added in, which just makes things take longer to complete in general.
-Detailed product roadmap could be more widely shared. Unless you are working on a product team, details are sparse when it comes to the exact products we are working on building.

Cons

Not many, the benefits are great.

Cons

Poor and ineffective leadership lies at the heart of NerdWallet's dysfunction. The company grew at lightening speed, and management over engineered the org structure into a complex matrix unnecessary for a small company, and then they over hired.

It became impossible for the smart people they hired to do meaningful work. The job was all about navigating political minefields rather than producing and helping the company grow. Due to the complexity of the org structure and a lack of clear ownership, execution moved at a snail's pace.

This was an especially egregious problem on the marketing team due to the marketing leader's lack of experience in both marketing strategy and leading people. The marketing leader doesn't listen to feedback or suggestions from the team, is reactionary rather than strategic, makes irrational decisions that are not in the company's best interest.

If you have a strong background in marketing and want to continue growing and learning as a marketer, or you are a marketer starting out, I would recommend joining a different company. This is not a place to learn or hone your marketing skills.

Cons

If you're looking to just coast and get a paycheck, come on in. If you're looking to really make an impact and grow, the only thing to expect is polishing your office politics skills. Morale is crap because the leadership is increasingly not transparent, product never seems to get anywhere, favoritism is rampant, and overall no one really understands how and why major decisions are made. Additional layoffs are also coming. They're working on the sly to hire a lawyer with experience in handling layoffs. Many of the people currently there are looking for new jobs because they're not sure if they'll be next.
Now, let's talk about the company's self-proclaimed values.
1) Consumer, Company, Team, Self. That's funny, all that consumer-first talk has now been replaced by sponsored ad placements . Most of the rank and file employees are going to be some of the most intelligent and wonderful coworkers you'll have, but in the upper echelons of Senior Managers and above, the politics between and within departments is fierce.
2) Drivers Before Solutions. For a company that emphasizes data-driven decisions, there are a lot of decisions made on false or misinterpreted data.
3) Candid and Constructive. They'll tell you to be candid and constructive and then fire those who are outspoken enough to do so. See the latest firings and layoffs on the marketing team, where everyone who disagreed and spoke up about the issues was let go.
4) Hypothesize, Build, Measure, Learn. The company is incredibly inefficient because management gives different teams different goals, leading to a lot of meetings about experimentation but not a lot of progress due to lack of alignment. You literally have to work under the table and purposely avoid the stated processes to get things done and improve the bottom line.
5) Relentless Self-Improvement. This is an area where leadership should look at themselves. Not everyone who's just risen up with the company has improved and is still qualified for the job. And that is having a major impact on your bottom line. (Also on the employees, but they don't care about the people unless you're besties with management.)

Cons

Company leadership is a very serious problem, particularly in marketing. Leaders are inexperienced, and favoritism is what gets someone promoted and protected. The company stresses the importance of “test and learn” but it is impossible to get anything done in a place where ownership is overly distributed and unclear. Morale is dramatically low given multiple rounds of layoffs and the firing of the few talented people on the team.

Cons

CMO has no relevant experience and does not listen to the people she hires. CMO plays favorites.

Cons

Absolutely no idea what they really want to do. Everything is vague and there's no clear concept of what is actually going on...oh and be careful to not get laid off because no matter how often they told me my job was secure, I still lost it in four weeks to no fault of my own.

Cons

Stability
Communication
Structure
Goals

Cons

-Wildly varying quality in management
-Sometimes felt slow to get things done
-Difficult to have your voice heard at times
-No clear path for growth

Cons

I cannot believe the most recent layoffs of good people. They seemed completely arbitrary. Aren't you profitable? I've heard the CEO and his friends now run the company with the new CPO from several former colleagues.