I didn’t separate the pros and cons XD. I wanted to tell the story neutrally, but since I’m giving this company a negative review, I put everything in the cons section!
Hello everyone, I’m a former employee of this company.
I used to love this company very much, but for certain reasons, I eventually couldn’t take it anymore and resigned.
The three posts below appear to have been written by people who once worked hard alongside one another. I’d like to share my own thoughts on them.
1. Flexible working hours and leave policies: the company completely trusts its employees. As long as work progress isn’t affected, you can take a break or a day off whenever you want.
There’s absolutely no problem with this point! The company really doesn’t care when people take leave, except in special situations such as business trips. Even when making long-term plans, it respects colleagues who already have personal arrangements and adjusts accordingly.
However, because this is a startup with a responsibility-based work system, the company also hopes employees can work overtime when necessary; compensatory leave is provided afterward.
For several months, there was a period when I had to work late into the night on a long-term basis, so the company gave me compensatory time off during the day.
You could call that humane, but it did indeed disrupt the biological clocks of both me and another colleague, causing us some health problems.
2. A free culture that encourages everyone to discuss things together.
This is highly subjective and depends greatly on the department and manager. I once also felt that the culture was very free, and that the company respected my ideas at the time.
Gradually, I stopped feeling that way. When I tried to communicate with management, I was rejected, and there wasn’t even a channel for communication.
At the same time, when I encountered bottlenecks and sought help from my manager, the only response I got was, “This situation is normal. Everyone encounters it, so please adjust on your own.”
3. All colleagues are highly capable, and you can learn a lot from them.
I certainly learned a lot from my colleagues, but I’m skeptical about whether the company will still be able to recruit top talent in the future. Quite a few highly capable people have left recently too!
4. Extremely generous compensation—the company is willing to pay if you have the ability.
I was at the company for quite a long time, but my salary wasn’t particularly high; it was more or less what had been publicly announced.
Of course, I’m also not embarrassed to say that I’m exceptionally capable.
5. The company is still growing, so there are often many opportunities to try new things. This may leave some people at a loss, but for those who enjoy challenges, it can provide a sense of accomplishment.
I love challenges, but I got no sense of fulfillment at all, so I resigned.
6. A highly ambitious startup with clear goals.
It is highly ambitious, but I feel that its goals have always been an unknown. This company has been around for seven years and is only this size; everyone can think for themselves about the issues behind that.
(You can look up Yixiang’s registration records—the company really has been around for seven years.)
7. Many users worldwide, making the work highly challenging.
In fact, after entering this industry, I don’t think there is any absolute connection between having many users and being highly challenging. In some respects—for example, scaling the architecture of backend systems—it is indeed very challenging, but there is always a ceiling.
Linear growth and exponential growth are different. This company is seeking exponential growth and the talent capable of helping it achieve that exponential growth. (Obviously, I’m not that person XD.)
8. A flat organization, high efficiency in getting things done, and lots of room for individuals to make an impact.
The organization is indeed flat, but personally, I didn’t feel that things were pushed forward very efficiently. Whenever I already had a huge pile of tasks on hand, an endless stream of new things would still be added.
The things I genuinely wanted to do were always pushed to the back, which was extremely painful.
9. Salaries above market rates (engineers’ starting salaries seem to have recently been adjusted to 100K+).
That wasn’t the case when I was there.
In fact, most of the company’s engineers could easily get offers of 100K or more from other companies.
Still, to balance things out, some salaries are definitely above 100K. You’ll have to interview there yourself to find out how much they have been adjusted.
10. Many things are new experiments and still in the exploratory stage, so clear systems—such as promotion procedures—haven’t yet been established.
That’s right! Especially since many employees are in their first job, and the managers at this company also have relatively little work experience, many communication processes and systems are still far from mature.
If you’re also looking for your first job, I strongly advise against joining this company. When you run into problems, you won’t know how to resolve them, and your manager may not be able to provide the help you need (as described in point 2 above).
11. Many recent graduates, with relatively few colleagues who have extensive experience in a particular field.
That’s right! If you want to improve your technical skills, this company is definitely not the place for you!
12. The office environment doesn’t have as much of its own style as some well-known startups.
I wonder whether the person who raised this point will be contacted by the company. Basically, I feel that the company has already done its best to optimize this aspect and make employees feel more comfortable.
13. High monthly salaries, but only 12 months of pay per year.
The company follows the Silicon Valley startup model, so 12 months of pay per year is normal. Based on the previously announced salary of 75K per month, that was only 900K+ per year; after this round of adjustments, it is 1.2 million+.
14. No attendance records, and therefore no overtime pay; a lack of a clear overtime-compensatory-leave system; flexible working hours; the company says overtime can be exchanged for compensatory leave, but most employees who are conscientious and too shy to ask for it don’t dare request compensatory leave; upon resignation, the company does not calculate how much unused annual or compensatory leave is worth, which is probably related to the lack of attendance records.
Personally, I don’t support this argument. The company does indeed provide the flexibility it promises verbally, along with a responsibility-based work system. Raising this point only makes people feel like a child whining for candy.
15. A lack of work-performance evaluations: when the boss says an employee is underperforming, the boss cannot produce strong evidence, and the employee also has no evidence to prove whether they have been misunderstood.
My manager kept telling me that my performance was very good—even up until the moment I resigned. Personally, I would give myself about 75 points.
I never experienced the stage of being doubted by the boss, so I won’t offer further comment.
16. A lack of HR systems: when employees have doubts about their manager’s judgment, there is no good communication channel.
When I left, the company was trying to establish an HR system.
Before this round of system-building, the company indeed did not have any good communication channels.
I also wasn’t particularly fond of the communication method used when I left, but I can’t reveal too many details.
17. Personally, I feel that too much time is spent in meetings. Company meetings often interrupt tasks midway.
I agree! At its most excessive, we would spend two half-days a week in regular meetings, not including product meetings, performance evaluations, one-on-one meetings, and so on. However, I personally always planned around the regular meetings that took up the most time, so I wasn’t interrupted halfway through a task.
But I still think the meetings were far too long...
18. When the boss’s philosophy conflicted with employees’, a large meeting was held in which employees were questioned. Personally, I feel this approach showed no consideration and diminished the boss’s stature.
Hehe! It seems I was already gone by then! My former colleagues really had a hard time...
19. A study-abroad retreat program was implemented, arranging a two-and-a-half-month retreat in the United States without planning how to make it more effective.
I won’t comment on sensitive topics.
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Some personal thoughts and additional comments:
1. I’m very grateful to this company; it gave me an opportunity to prove myself.
This company pulled me up when I was down and gave me a great opportunity to shine. It also gave me the chance to prove to myself that I wasn’t useless XD.
I think this is also a very important part of the company’s culture in establishing the Engineering Trainee Program: it is willing to embrace all talented employees.
2. Frustrations in product development
This company has neither QA nor a Code Review system. This information is public, and anyone who has interviewed there will hear the same response.
The reason for not having these systems is that the company believes everyone it hires has a certain level of ability and knows how to maintain their own code and quickly write clean, tidy code.
But things didn’t work out that way—I maintained a whole pile of...
I was able to meet the company’s deadlines, but I had absolutely no control over the quality of what I produced.
3. Product quality
As both a developer and a loyal user (I still use their product to this day, XDD), I feel that this company’s UI/UX needs improvement.
In addition, no full-time employee at this company has a UI or UX title, and I can’t say much about how this is handled internally.
4. Not trusted by the company
The phrase “the company trusts its employees” appears above, but that referred to leave. In fact, I don’t feel that the company trusted me very much; when I raised issues, I was even questioned in return.
My personal impression is that the company reserves judgment about everyone, though the extent of those reservations is unknown.
I also believe that every person at a startup is an important contributor to shaping the company culture. It’s disappointing when the opinions you put forward aren’t adopted, let alone when they are almost never adopted...
5. Help with one’s career
This company is currently quite well known, so when looking for a job elsewhere, many people will have heard of the company’s name, and many recruiters will also contact you privately.
Other than that, though, there isn’t much. As mentioned above, there is a lack of a promotion system, and many people remain in the same position doing the same work even after two or three years.
6. If you’re a recent graduate, interview elsewhere and look around more.
Please refer to points 10 and 11 above. The company’s current situation won’t help much with your career development.
Of course, I believe the company will try to move in this direction. Whether you’re willing to invest your time in this company is a choice you have to make.
The short version (the main reasons I resigned):
1. Most of the things I proposed were not adopted, and I spent most of my time doing what was assigned from above.
2. It became increasingly difficult to communicate with people above my manager when I encountered problems.
3. The company offers limited career development for individuals.
4. This company has been around for seven years and still feels like a young startup, with incomplete systems.
5. If I think of myself as an investor and my youth as the capital, I’m unwilling to invest such a large amount in this company.
In summary, I’m giving this company a negative review and strongly do not recommend it to people considering joining.
You can look on LinkedIn to see where people who have left this company ended up. If you receive an offer, you might as well try those companies too and compare.
I was recently happy to see that the company raised salaries for its colleagues, and I hope everyone keeps working hard toward becoming the number-one company in the world!
(For the management reading this post: please don’t respond here. Anyone can tell who wrote it just by looking at the wording and tone, and saying that publicly would be really embarrassing XD.)