Confluent Reviews

Aside from the opportunity for resume and personal skills development, I think there isn't a lot left at Confluent anymore. The comp is below market value, especially with the microscopic option grants these days. There aren't refreshers until your third year, and it's only 15% of your already tiny grant if joining in 2020. This company in particular loves to hire externally and almost never promotes from within, so make sure you are at the level you want to be during negotiations. Emotional intelligence is basically nonexistent among the technical leadership, and they don't listen to ANYBODY whether its their own people or the field teams. You'll have to be part of the good old boy's club to really enjoy working here, so carefully consider the demographics of the engineering leadership and whether that lines up with yours. It's really a shame what's happened to Confluent, since I was here when things were still amazing. That culture is sadly no more, and engineering and product have really been struggling to deliver anything meaningful lately. A lot of the cornerstone talent either got forced out, left or in the process of leaving, or checked out, so engineering and product have hollowed out significantly. This has resulted in a "technology" company that delivers very little from a fundamentals perspective but is mostly carried by a large marketing budget and an above average field team, which can only stretch so far unfortunately, so there is starting to be trouble with the numbers. People in industry have been talking, since every conversation I have with recruiters these days starts with how they know about the issues this company has been having recently. Having been here for so long, it breaks my heart to witness the implosion of something I believed in. But somewhere after all that initial success, the company lost its way. The leadership failed to show any gratitude for the culture and people that brought them there. This is a company whose heyday is long gone, but during that time I met a lot of good people among the old timers, some who turned into close, personal friends. That was probably the only reward I got for wasting so much time here, but I'll hold onto those relationships at my next role and beyond.

It’s rare to see over half the team hitting quota. I’ve seen little career growth for my peers. I’ve seen more people leave or get fired than be promoted, thus, creating a stressful environment. There is no clear path towards earning a promotion, resulting in people stuck in the same role. SDR managers are not very good and have little SDR experience. The team is not collaborative and hides best practices leading to people doing their own thing with absolutely zero standardization. Managers encourage people to work on off days and longer hours which leads to burnout. There is a constant feeling of big brother watching you. Managers add unimportant time-consuming projects making you unable to focus on your actual job. I don’t recommend working here as an SDR.