Exciting company to work for - Anonymous employee Expend Employee Review

Great team, collaborative culture where your input is valued and acted upon. Growth in a SaaS start up can be challenging to achieve but management/colleagues are always able to think of new ways to grow and maintain customers and this has shown in the time I've been with Expend, being able to translate customers wants and align them with the direction the business is going. I've been able to grow my skill set whilst with Expend and I'm better for it after working in a corporate environment my whole working life.

With any startup, there is always lots of juggling of roles, so not a con as such but the fast paced change of direction if you're needed on something else outside your role it can be unsettling for some but it is managed in a way your own workload isn't usually hindered as support from the team is there if needed. Coming from a corporate background, this was a shock at first!

The leadership are extremely competent and supportive. They provide space for staff to grow and contribute in new ways. While they bring lots of their own experience, they are still open to new ideas and other viewpoints. There is a lovely balance between the positive parts of start-up culture (team spirit, everyone has a voice, agility) and a mature established company (security, benefits package, work life balance, the ability for the company to grow and do stuff that costs). There are legacy engineering challenges (as with any company more than a couple of years old), but there is a clear plan in place to address them which is very refreshing and satisfying. Carrying legacy code is painful, fixing and replacing it can be cathartic and even fun! The new architecture is great - lots of interesting distributed systems challenges to get your teeth into and plenty of modern tooling to reduce friction. There is plenty of opportunity to learn and grow. The company is growing fast as well, so career opportunities are plentiful. I know of at least one colleague who has completely changed career direction while working at Expend which is very cool. I have also seen how patient and supportive Expend leadership are when someone is struggling. They clearly want people to thrive, and are prepared to be extremely flexible to make that possible. Fully remote (apart from one optional office day in London each month) which of course helps greatly with work life balance and gives me much valued time with my family.

The only one I can think of right now is that I miss working in an office sometimes. I'm very much a people person, and I loved those little interactions you have throughout the day - sharing a joke or helping each other out with problems when they crop up. That said I think we're getting pretty good at working in this way since the pandemic, and Expend does it well. I don't I miss the office life enough to go back to commuting an hour each day and losing that time with family.