SoundCloud Reviews

Pros

SC onboarding experience was warm and welcoming. The mission and brand messaging is so strong and inspiring, makes you feel like you are really part of something important and next level in music. Also, the people here are ridiculously cool and creative. I feel cool just by association. SC workplace environment makes me feel cared for and supported because I get every tool and resource I need (maybe even more than I need) at my fingertips. I highly highly recommend SoundCloud to anyone that wants to work for the coolest music entertainment company on the planet!

Cons

I only have good things to say...sorry!

Pros

Decent benefits package and the ability to work at a brand name. (it will com in handy when you surely plan your exit.

Cons

Unqualified managers gossip and are bullies. They also expect you to work around the clock. Things change every 3 seconds, and it's absolute chaos. What should be a mature company feels like a brand-new start-up. The executive team is crazy and change their minds often. It's extremely stressful. There's also no workplace culture or very little of it. On my second day I was hit with Microaggressions, which set the tone for the rest of my time there. one of the worst experiences of my career

Pros

ICs and other engineering managers are supportive and kind to one another. Most likely due to bonding over poor management over on the engineering side.

Cons

SoundCloud used to be a wonderful place to work from what I hear. Unclear what caused a major chaos in the Engineering, Product, and Design organization. I can tell you what has not improved -- senior leadership. It is a disappointing group of individuals who focuses on the wrong things and prioritizes "getting it down" over their people. If you suck up to senior leadership and abide by their rules then you will succeed here. If not, then expect them to gaslight you and make you think that you are not doing your job well. The tech debt has accumulated so much over time that teams are stretched thin and nothing can get done. Product managers are incredibly demanding but so incompetent that they cannot get anything done without a help from others. Yet they blame the engineering teams from blocking them. Why not pick up a new skill and learn how to do basic things yourself? Why not try to learn how the internal systems work to ask better questions? If you want to be a people manager here, think twice about what you are getting yourself into because many EMs have left before hitting their one year anniversary.

Pros

-Brand name. -Exciting time for the business with pivoting product offerings. -Colleagues are talented and come from diverse backgrounds.

Cons

-Poor work life balance, low morale across the board on production teams, mostly desk lunches, jump through hoops to take vacation. Retention has been an issue. -Business is disorganized and a lot of processes are not built out. This would be acceptable for a start-up, not a mature business. Plus management expects you to execute as if the business is functioning fully when basic best practices have never been set up nor prioritized. -My team and all the teams I worked with were understaffed, the expectation of work was too high for the amount of resources. -Top-down “blame culture” - management is quick to point blame on the individual as opposed to being receptive to feedback and trusting / investing in their employees. -Pay isn’t great.

Pros

It’s fun to work in music.

Cons

Toxic, bordering on abusive environment in marketing. Exec team all aware and complicit. Suck up or shut up. You’ll learn nothing except how to force yourself to do work you don’t believe in.

Pros

They care about the client. Benefits are decent.

Cons

There are a number of managers who aren't necessarily qualified to be such. Never really had a clear understanding of what was being asked of me. They let go 20% of their workforce very unceremoniously.

Pros

The team is supportive, and the culture is great

Cons

Executive leadership is uninspiring and unorganized. Pay is lower than competing companies.

Pros

Passion for independent artists, respect for diversity, innovative approach to the music industry.

Cons

Relatively slow career advancement. Lack of transparency around company valuation.

Pros

Culture was mostly fun, they did a good job trying make things fun.

Cons

Long hours, not great pay. Sometimes outweighed the other culture aspects.

Pros

- great work life balance and diversity - opportunities to work with many stakeholders - job itself was enjoyable

Cons

- underpaid a bit - career growth opportunities were limited