Any positive outlook slowly fades when you get under the hood. The product is broken, with a constant battle against bugs, a lack of internal communication between teams and unrealistic expectations from managers. Even when speaking to customers, they tell you they have no confidence, as you are the 3rd, 4th, or 5th person to be in contact as their “new account manager”. When your customers are feeling that sort of pain, you know it’s a “company problem” and not a “people problem". There are genuinely nice talented people in the company. However senior-level management, I’m afraid, are truly shocking with zero people skills, they do not inspire you to bring the best version of yourself to work each day, the complete opposite is what happens. There is a real fear that you could be laid off at any moment and for no reason. Upper management have no people skills whatsoever. I’ve seen teammates being called out in front of the team by managers which creates a real fear factor and is such a bad practice, in no world does that help anyone. There is no real feedback or career progression, only token gesture conversation every so often to “tick a box". Working in Smartcat, I can honestly say, was as stressful as it gets, targets shifting, priorities shifting almost daily, unclear roadmaps, unclear direction and a constant atmosphere of micro management from leadership. My first ever role was working in a call center where you had a "clock in/out" system, Smartcat is almost at that level, everything you do has to be tracked in a way that they use that against you.
