11 yr-old company... with an 11 yr-old's immaturity
Pros
Autonomy to work creatively to solve problems. Snap operates like a start up and you can often develop ideas, test, and implement them fairly quickly. Snap also has a wide variety of interesting platforms, mediums, and products to work on and experiment with.
Cons
Immaturity: When I joined Snap it felt like a startup. Years later, it still feels like a startup and just as immature, and the immaturity is reflected in the product / decision-making. The CEO refuses to issue voting shares of stock, so that he can run Snap like a personal vanity project, rather than building an actual profitable business. Career Paths: Easy to get stuck in your career and pay. No set career paths and no salary negotiations. Performance reviews are a statement (rather than a conversation). It's all about what you should do moving forward to benefit the company, and very little practical feedback to grow you as a person/employee, no paths shared to you for advancing your career, or to get promotions. Micromanagement: The core Design team is very cliquey and frat-like. The CEO has to directly interview everyone in design. Core design is micromanaged by CEO, and as a result the designers revolve around pleasing him and creating CEO-centric products, rather than user-centric products. They keep work close to their chest (usually bad and unfinished work) until they can get it in front of the CEO so he knows it was their idea. As soon as they get they're praise, they rush to build the bad product and move on. There's no accountability for quality beyond that. They are all in competition with each other for the CEO's approval. People will go over peoples heads and go straight to the CEO if they can to get their way.
