Company lacks diversity or empathy - Payments Associate Upstart Employee Review

2.0
21 Feb 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The pay for the PA role was decent. - Starting equipment was provided, including a laptop (MacBook) - One of the best interview processes I've ever experienced. I finished each interview feeling empowered and confident thanks to the interviewers skill at pulling out and highlighting the strengths I demonstrated in each response. The time between interviews was very short, and there wasn't a "project" portion, which while useful, can sometimes stretch out the application process.

Cons

- Training was a bit too short too for me to feel properly equipped for the role. - The trainer was very abrasive and inflexible. Refused to adjust to the learning style of the students and instead pushed forward with their lesson plan. When accommodations were requested, I was met with a response of, in essence, "this is a fast paced role, if you can't adjust, it might not be for you". - When I spoke with management about the training difficulties I was having, I was immediately treated as if it was my fault. ( Not pointing fingers - I just typically expect neutrality from leadership until all the information is gathered) - I saw very few BlPOCs during the meetings, and the few I did meet seemed to only be present in entry level, customer facing roles. I don't understand why the diversity score for this company isn't lower.

Explore other reviews about Upstart

5.0
11 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Promising product, competitive pay, lots of work

Cons

Unstable, leadership is hit or miss

2.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Compensation. Only reason I don't give them 1 star. - Remote Work - Pretty diverse

Cons

- incredible amount of politics, process, and red tape for an engineering org on the smaller side - Chaos. There were three re-orgs between Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Actual madness. - High turnover is embraced. They will gladly let go of long time high performers with years of tribal knowledge and hire someone new with more experience. You eventually up with a team where everyone has hardly any domain knowledge. - Fear driven environment. You will hear performance mentioned every week in company comms and how they want everyone to be X% more productive with AI. - Speaking of AI usage, they take it to the next level. Slack messages, Jira tickets, code, design documents. All made with AI. It will be the most overly verbose word slop you can think of and you'll get a pat on the back for being so thorough. My manager seriously told me how she just copied a technical design doc into chatgpt and read that. Wild. - Cutthroat. With the new focus on productivity gains and measuring performance with PR volume, LOC, and token usage, people hardly review PRs anymore because it gets them nothing. Be prepared to spend lots of time begging your team and other teams for reviews and then waiting. Unless you are good at playing politics and have the time / energy for it, I would avoid this place at all costs. If you are just looking for something short term that pays well and encourages you to use AI for any and everything, this place works well, just don't expect to stick around for long as you're considered a veteran at 2 years with all the turnover they have. I'm glad I left for something else when I did because I see on linkedin they've had more layoffs since.

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