Pros
Lunches pre-covid were paid, but the pay was low overall so there's that. People I got to meet outside of the IT umbrella seemed nice. Thankfully I never had to work on weekends or odd-hours, but that was more to do with the fact that they don't give out laptops to take home.
Cons
I have no idea why some tech people are giving 5-star reviews, most likely forced by the management to drown out the genuine criticism here. Can't really say much for non-tech but they seemed happy with their jobs. Tech Work Culture: Terrible work culture right from the CTO down. Lots of Indian senior employees with really bad micromanagement tendencies. Most people spoke in their first language inside the office, in meetings etc., which was not English obviously. It was beyond unprofessional because it impacts not only promotions or your ability to learn but also your morale cause it happened ALL THE DAMN TIME. Hiring was done within their community which meant no fresh ideas coming from outside. Politics - The office politics was insane here. In hindsight it is not surprising, because if you hire unqualified people only because you known them through a relative or a friend, it means those people are un-fireable once they get in. Therefore those without any prior connections are left to pick up the slack and are constantly under a microscope with strict deadlines. The CTO Chintan Mehta - I need to have a special section for this person. If you are interviewing under her direct teams (which are most in tech) please run away! She is directly involved in the day-to-day and is unquestionably the worst manager I have ever seen. Far too many times I've seen her screaming at employees, micromanaging all the damn time, and the worst one - announcing mistakes for the room to hear. So the intention is not to make sure the person learns but to demean and shame them. I have never seen behavior like that in any setting - let alone in an office environment. She has absolutely no sense of what it means to be professional and decent to fellow employees. The day I found out I was leaving and the day I left the company were filled with incredible relief, and this person has got A LOT to do with that. Pay / Benefits / Career: Pay was very low for the amount of stress and dread I had to endure going in to work. Most techies are H1bs who would leave in an instant if their status wasn't tied to having continuous employment. There are no career development activities. In conclusion - there are a 100 other places where you could work in the NYC area. The only reasons someone should work in this place is if they're born in a particular state in India or if you're on H1b with nowhere else to go.
