Talented Team - Software Engineer Barley Employee Review

Company fundamentals like guiding principles, policies and onboarding are well established and refreshingly mature for an early stage company, which brings a sense of security and that the leadership has prepared the company for growth. The leadership is experienced, thoughtful, and motivated to help teams and individuals succeed by preparing personal growth plans, pushing us to be masters of our domains. I have a great sense of autonomy and feeling like I really contribute to pushing the ball forward. Barley has a great balanced “work hard, play hard” company culture. In a remote work world, they take time to make sure we get to know each other and have some fun yet all motivated to help the company reach its goals. I get to work in an industry space that is evolving and relevant to where the world is going in terms of remote work and fair pay. It’s great to feel like I can make a real change. Company goals and vision are based on tons of research and customer interviews! They really care about individual, and are very understanding when it comes to personal health and responsibilities.

As with any early stage company, the work is fast paced and not always fully formed. However, the teams and leadership welcome collaboration and truly see all aspects as a team effort. East and West timezones can take some getting used to, but Barley sets up hours and processes to make it is easy to collaborate with others.

Joining Barley has been a positive experience from the very beginning. They have an informative and transparent job offer process. As a compensation management software, there's a lot of pressure to get this right. And they really do. You can see how comp best practices are built into the company's DNA. I feel like we're tackling interesting and timely problems, especially around pay equity. It's important to me to work with a diverse team, where I feel heard and represented. So I value that the leadership team prioritizes this. They make a consistent and intentional push to hire people from diverse backgrounds, as well as for talent and culture fit. As a result, the company culture is incredible. The whole team is supportive, thoughtful, clever, and kind. There's a strong practice of continuous feedback and collaboration, and I learn something new every day. I enjoy the flexible remote work schedule. There are core hours of overlap, which let us work synchronously across time zones. Beyond that, I have great balance. I can easily step away to take a walk and recharge my brain.

There is so much to learn and build that it can feel overwhelming. The work is challenging. You have to be comfortable with (and enjoy!) absorbing new info all the time. Luckily, there's a ton of support for this, including a learning budget and lots of one-on-one time with leaders.