Toptal Reviews

Pros

Remote-first company with good benefits, such as internal health insurance reimbursement and access to learning platforms

Cons

Working as part of their support staff, the workload can be tricky to manage at times.

Pros

When I received a job offer to work for Toptal, I was uncertain whether or not to accept based on some of the negative glassdoor reviews. But I had a great interview process - everyone seemed kind, caring and competent, so I decided to go with my gut, accept the offer and I’m glad I did! Toptal is a great company. I can’t speak for every department, but the people and leaders in the sale org are wonderful. I’ve been in a sales almost a decade, and I have never had a leader so invested in my growth until I came to Toptal. I also have never had an issue taking any time off, nor am I bothered about work when I do. Toptal has surpassed my expectations. I also think the fact that it’s a fully Remote and Global company is pretty cool. We have employees from all over the world, making Toptal incredibly diverse. If you’re considering Toptal, i’d say don’t let the negative reviews deter you. It’s a great company!

Cons

The company is so big, so the departments are a bit siloed, but otherwise, nothing else i can think of

Pros

Remote work Some smart, cool people Potentially good pay Recruitment team was good

Cons

The CEO thrives on making others look bad, and if you defend yourself with facts, he will try harder to make you feel stupid. He holds company wide meetings and brags about suing former employees. There is fairly universal agreement that he focuses on dumb things that make no difference for the company but waste time and push employees to quit fast. Unlimited PTO is more like extremely limited PTO. I got Slacked relentlessly while on vacation and goaded into joining meetings. The Chief People Officer will talk bad about other people to you and try to get you to agree with her. It's so cringe and unprofessional. Those two work all the time and expect others to do the same. The company was in "hypergrowth" mode for so long without careful planning, and shocker, now they've laid off a ton of people. No job is ever stable there and people constantly feel like they are going to be fired. They are anti-diversity, they laugh about the fact that they pay non-US workers so poorly, and the fact that the CEO didn't pay back his investors tells you everything you need to know about the kind of person he is. The recruitment team moves so fast probably because they don't want you to have time to research how bad a place this is. I wish I had pumped the brakes.

Pros

The best part about working here is the many great people you get to work with - variety of different clientele. The remote culture is super nice and it’s overall pretty flexible how you work throughout your day.

Cons

Everyone keeps a good face about the company until you start working here and seeing what’s going on and talking to people. There’s a fear across the company of layoffs or being ridiculed by the CEO. We post articles on LinkedIn about companies who do layoffs making an example of them and how they haven’t grown the right way then turn around a week later and do layoffs across the company. The Unlimited PTO policy is BS for the most part - holidays aren’t included in the PTO and you can’t go over 35 they say - so really not including holidays you get 20 days or so. Sales practices are very questionable and the whole model has flaws that I won’t go into. There’s some really good leaders - but also many bad ones. Pay is also very very low - no company bonuses - no equity because it’s a private company

Pros

- Remote work - Good for individual contributors or those below Director level, if on the right team - A high growth disruptor for many years, which has now changed

Cons

- As many others noted, the CEO is incompetent, abrasive, and unable to deal with adversity. Think Elon Musk at Twitter, but worse - The closer you are to the CEO, the shorter your average tenure will be. And you'll be more miserable on a daily basis. He double hats as the CMO, despite having no marketing experience. Marketing has such high churn and so many competing priorities that that the are perpetually ineffective - The company was a hypergrowth business for many years, but has been steadily declining for at least 9 months due to mismanagement, firing all the wrong people, and inability to adjust to the current economy - Unless you're comfortable coming in as a lower-level, individual contributor and remaining at that level, then avoid at all costs. Otherwise, history suggests you'll be out the door in 3-6 months

Pros

100% remote and good pay

Cons

Would regularly get rid of employees with no notice and no explanation, leaving their teammates confused and worried they were next. Weeks of hard work were thrown away because teams no longer had the bandwidth to support projects, and employees were left to take on the extra work of those that were randomly let go. For months Taso (CEO) told employees on their monthly company meetings that they did not anticipate any layoffs, that there was no need to worry, and that any employees that would be let go would be due to reasons strictly performance related. In February 2023 they laid off hundreds of employees who were shocked and confused, one department at a time, so the other departments didn't know it was coming. Severance was low compared to other tech companies. Laid off employees had no time to collect white-labelled project examples to use to secure their next role or any personal items saved in their Google drives.

Pros

They do pay competitively and usually above market. It's remote, but you can also find other remote jobs (don't let this be the reason you work here). Global workforce means you're exposed and working alongside some of the best talent. For U.S. employees, they pay your health insurance premiums.

Cons

CEO is an emotionally dysregulated narcissist with little-to-no emotional intelligence and lacks the credentials to be in a leadership position (he founded the company, that's his only 'credential'). He is verbally abusive. Nobody tells him 'no' or dares to disagree with him, even if robust data proves him wrong. This creates a deep-rooted cycle of fear and poorly made decisions -- I am confident this will be the downfall of Toptal, unfortunately. The culture and values of the company are weak. It seems the only real piece of 'culture' is surrounding your ability to survive the verbal and mental abuse of the CEO. While they have documented 'leadership principles,' the CEO is the only one who fails to follow them or uphold them. He will recognize he's 'direct' with his feedback (claims he isn't 'unreasonable'), however it goes beyond simply being 'direct.' There's a difference between direct feedback and screaming, yelling, cursing and belittling. With the existing culture, innovation is hindered. There is no motivation for employees to innovate or think divergently as there is fear of being publicly humiliated by the CEO. This happens weekly. Older generations will tolerate the toxicity of this company and make excuses for its 'weaknesses', however younger generations have zero flexibility in being mistreated and abused.

Pros

Above average pay and a truly remote-first culture make this a compelling place to work. Some teams get travel perks, but it's highly selective. Vacation time is, despite what they say, limited. However, it's a fairly generous 35 days, including holidays that you choose to take off.

Cons

Our CEO recently spoke with us about attempting to prevent a culture of fear. Sadly, that is the only thing keeping the ship together. Since many workers are afraid to raise legitimate concerns or point out issues, development is cyclical and static. He won't relinquish control and trust his workers. No board of directors exists. No C-suite other than fervent yes guys. He merely believes his approach to be the best one. They were successful for many years because there was little competition, but they are now struggling in the face of many better alternatives. The numbers are dropping, and he refuses to heed the counsel of the countless bright individuals he has hired to repair it. In group calls, he has a reputation for publicly ridiculing others. Top management frequently lies.

Pros

- You can work remotely from anywhere in the world - They put a lot of focus on training to ensure you get up to speed as quickly as possible and if they have new products they'll spend some time training you so you can learn anything new that has been released. - People is probably what makes this company a great place to work, you're surrounded by very talented, intelligent, and wonderful people across different teams who are willing to support you and encourage you to give your best

Cons

- Lots of changes lately in the leadership department with no clear direction about the company's vision - You don't get performance Bonuses if you exceed your quota

Pros

High volume of inbound leads

Cons

Low quality clients often consume time