A breath of fresh air compared to the tech market
Pros
- Render is full of caring, passionate, and smart people all trying to make this place and the product successful, from IC's all the way to the CEO. - Decision making is grounded in reason and the company values. They don't follow a trend for the sake of a trend; everyone from leadership to ICs take a deliberate, rational approach to decision making and planning, which is a huge breath of fresh air compared to the insanity of the rest of the tech/startup world. - The product actually serves a purpose that solves a genuine problem. It's a no-brainer product that actually makes me proud to work here. And we're not trying to ham-fist AI for the sake of AI! - I have never felt as psychologically safe in any role as I feel at Render. That is largely to do with my manager, but everyone up my reporting chain reinforces this. - Every signal I got during my interview process came true: I was given a realistic view of the company and its culture, and have been surprised how accurate that was to real life. This applies to both the high points and areas of growth.
Cons
- We tend to hire a lot of post-big-company employees, given that hiring skews towards higher levels of experience. This means people sometimes try to hold our small company to large-company standards. This is honestly not a huge issue, but sometimes things feel overly formal or over-processed for really simple tasks. I sometimes wish we focused more on just getting things done rather than doing them highly polished. - Our culture is a little boring. Maybe related to the last bullet point, but I think people are a little afraid to be "unprofessional." This could be a pro if you are someone who highly values your work-life separation, and it has been a 50% pro for me, coming from work environments that asked for my heart and my soul in my work. I prefer a little separation, but I wish we had slightly more focus on creating a fun culture and celebrating individuality. The annual company meet-ups are my favorite time for this reason. - As of the timing of this review, we have experienced a lot of attrition, which leaves already small teams pretty burdened with work. Our recruiting function is slow, which has exacerbated the issue. We're starting to catch up on it, but I know it's impacted people. We'll get through it and come out alright on the other side. - We have no focus on diversity & inclusion in hiring or internally, and I wish we did.
