What is the salary like at Discord?

The people do really care about the experience and the users, generally nice and supportive coworkers.

Company wants to squeeze out every ounce of productivity and creativity for as cheaply as possible, leading to lots of burnout. Decisions and directions are made in secret and then trickle down a few layers to teams. Pay is low compared to other companies and paper money not going to be real any time soon, no clear path to IPO and super over valued. Acquisition to Microsoft looking like a huge miss and would have been life changing for the rank and file employees. People stay because they love the product and hope to make it better.

The ICs that you work with are genuinely some of the most passionate and smart people that you'll work with. Pay is pretty decent for the industry and the remote work policy is great, and it's a very popular product and a line-item that'll look good on a resume.

The pandemic propelled Discord into hyper-growth, but as the summer of 2021 came and people started going back outside, Discord's leadership couldn't find a way to capture that audience for the long-term and sustain that level of growth. Ever since then, the company was floundering, chasing industry buzzwords like crypto and AI and constantly changing their target demographic in an attempt to recapture those pandemic-level highs. As a result, the long-term strategy was nonexistent, and there was no clear vision for the future of the company. Obviously, this is evident now as Discord has done a round layoffs for the first time, but this is a lagging indicator of systemic issues that have been at play for a while. The old addage of the fish rotting from its head is true here - ultimately, the lack of experience from leadership and the inability to build, expand, and sell a product like Discord. During my time there, leadership chased industry buzzwords like crypto and AI at the behest of the core userbase, and rolled out multiple changes to the app's design and core primitives that resulted in the app store ratings for the apps plummeting. Communication between leadership and ICs were not healthy, and often times it felt like leadership was not interested in the voice of passionate employees that cared about doing the right thing. Something is wrong here, and it's almost certainly not the ICs at the front-line. During my time at the company, I was subject to multiple re-orgs, broken promises about career opportunities and ways to have an impact, and consistently got the short end of the stick when it came to promotions, raises, and compensation adjustments. Given the recent reviews and stigma around the company, I'm not sure any of this has gotten better. I would avoid working here.

Great pay, great teammates, great tech

Company direction is iffy at times

- Amazing people work here - WFH first - Great salary and benefits - Great diversity and inclusion culture, people are really people more than workers

- Very high expectations - Fast paced and easy to get the chop

- fun environment - good pay and benefits

- reduced workforce when they said they wouldn't - lack of urgency - poor resource management

There are no pros to working at discord

Working at Discord was an absolute nightmare. Management is a disaster, making random decisions with zero transparency. The work environment is toxic, with rampant favoritism and zero inclusivity. Career growth? Forget it. Promotions are based on politics, not merit. Expect to work around the clock with no respect for personal time—burnout is guaranteed. The pay is a joke compared to the industry standards, and benefits are laughable. Projects are chaotic, with constant changes and impossible deadlines.

- Good benefits - Amazing and talented people around you that are super passionate about Discord and most of them are kindhearted nerds - Fast promotion (but just once. You will never step up afterward unless you are your manager's favorite) - First few months were very enjoyable and onboarding was a good experience (even if a little messy)

- Leadership does not care at all about their employees and only about themselves and getting all their friends hired instead of actual people that care about the product - Management picks their favorites and if you are not one of them, they will not care about your career anymore - They act as if they care about your mental health but once they notice you are struggling in some way, you will get punished - US employees are enjoying a better salary than Canada/European employees + non-US employees are treated like second class workforce - Communication between teams is the worst I have ever seen and nobody knows anything about the stuff outside their team bubble which leads to confusion and extra workload that gets scraped at the end anyways - If you are not part of the IT team, you are also one of the less fortunate people at Discord with less benefits, compensation and acknowledgment from leaders - Their "Discord Principles" only apply to employees below management level and are mostly being used against you instead of actually helping to create a better work environment - You are just a number. You will suffer from mismanagement and not those that are actually responsible for project/problem/strategy.

The individuals are wonderful. 99% of the people I meet, chat with, and work with, are amazing, kind, and hard working. I have met some of my closest friends at Discord. My manager is also pretty solid. Nothing to write home about, but he genuinely tries to take care of those under him, and he does his best to check in to see how we're doing and if we need help. Pay is pretty good. Better than I would make at other companies for sure. Plus it's hybrid, so you can move around the country and keep your job security.

Everyone I talk to that isn't in management is burnt out. Hiring practices do not support the amount of work expected to grow the company's profile and profits. I know of several people who left for greener pastures and who were just never replaced. As a result, their duties are now being added to someone else's already busy schedule. I don't know of a single department that isn't impacted by this. It's a growing problem that has yet to be addressed. Leadership seems unaware or content to ignore it. Sometimes lip service is paid, but rarely. Decisions are made without any warning, and plans seem to be on a constant pivot. If you aren't in certain departments you will get little to no recognition for the work you do. I don't remember the last time our CX department got a shout-out for dealing with the unending barrage of harassment from our users. Same for our Trust & Safety teams. Corners are bring cut, and profit is the name of the game. I wouldn't be shocked if they start quietly letting go of more and more people. That's a big reason why people aren't being replaced, the money saved on salary looks good to leadership. AI is being implemented here and there, and will likely start taking over more of the work. I currently don't trust that I have any real job security. Honestly, this place has destroyed my mental health. I work the equivalent of three different roles at this point, and I am still asked to do more. I truly dislike working here, but the pay is such that I can't currently quit without taking a cut. And I can't afford that. If you are looking into working here, heed the lower star reviews. Yeah, some people love it at Discord, but at this point they're in the minority. Once the honeymoon period ends, you're more likely to be burnt out than not.

PTO and pay is reasonable

Culture is getting worse and no leadership or vision

- Competitive pay - Growth opportunities

- Busy - Everything is urgent