Just toxic - Anonymous employee TubeMogul Employee Review

1.0
18 Jul 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some people from certain teams are delightful. With the technical side, though, your odds are better in this regard. If you fit in here, you'll probably love it. I have seen a lot of comments about HR encouraging (or requiring) positive reviews on day one. I did not have this experience and have a hard time imagining this happening...the HR team seemed really fair to me. You can also do pretty well on your manager, but -- again -- this is dependent upon which team to which you belong. (But, to be fair, there are some great people here.) Pay for my position was actually quite respectable. If you can specialize, you can probably do well in terms of salary. Their benefits are also pretty great. Work from home and time off was flexible.

Cons

The most toxic and demoralizing place I've ever worked. TubeMogul is beset on all sides by micromanagement, an inability to plan even small tasks, corrosive personalities, and institutional favoritism. I also don't think the communication (between teams, inside of teams, it's doesn't matter) could be any worse if it were someone's absolute goal. Projects for second quarter, for example, were given out halfway through the first quarter. Then, two weeks later, people acted surprised when things were not further along. Everything rolls downhill at TM. Expect to be thrown under the bus at a senior employee's leisure. There's also an air of "CYA" going on with most processes. For example, managers and project managers will often comment on issues/tickets about which they know nothing (and have not followed even once) the day before a big meeting just so they can say they are on top of it. There are also some seriously alarming technical issues at this company, such as with their cloud provider. Major parts of that platform are implemented completely incorrectly. Nobody cares about implementing architecture correctly (for example, avoiding single points of failure). Instead, they want it quickly and cheaply -- no matter what. I also observed a lot of trouble getting things done. Even when prompted by management to do something, such as open a trouble ticket, the next day nothing would be done because the manager had gone to the ticket's assignee and told them not to do it (without telling me...or telling me why). I am not sure how they expect to get anything done if they cannot even communicate the simple things like this. Indecision seemed rife in everything we did. A lot of this is because people seemed to have entirely too much going at once. That is to say, I am used to being overloaded, but not consistently like at TM. I probably had 3 times more work assigned to me than I could do in the time frame...and that didn't even count the backlog of things I inherited. If you hate meetings that drone on with little done or said of consequence, you might not want to work here. (Or, if you just want people to show up to meetings they scheduled -- never-mind on time -- also not a good fit.) You might think all of this is the sum of its parts and comes out to "growing pains". However, while I think that may have been true at one time, I think the current environment more accurately reflects the bad habits that come to define the below-standard environment and tools. The industry status quo -- even at its most basic -- seems to be unattainable at TubeMogul. If you work here, especially on the technical side, be prepared to sit in meetings most of the time. When you're not going that, you'll be focused almost exclusively on putting out fires and dealing with emergencies. Just be prepared for the fact that most of them are a direct result of their shortcomings: bad (or no) communication, bad architecture, bad (or no) documentation, or just employees with weak skills (or who don't do well under pressure). I have worked some crappy jobs before, but never a place where I *dreaded* going to work. Or going home. Or being on call. I was never happier than when I left TubeMogul. I am sure other people have had great experiences, but that did not seem to be the case with people I know/knew at TubeMogul. Most people seemed miserable, and many were open about their job hunting. Parking is also sort of famously egregious.

Explore other reviews about TubeMogul

5.0
2 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Felt really close to my teammates, great place to work. Had a fun internship with lots of good team bonding events, interesting projects.

Cons

I didn't notice any big downsides.

5.0
4 Oct 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Amazingly intelligent and empathetic co-workers. Above all else, the people you work with here won't make you dread getting out of bed each morning. - Huge industry opportunity at the intersection of technology and advertising. Above-average product and compelling SaaS-based business model. - Clear value proposition in a notoriously opaque industry. - Senior leadership is overly transparent - sometimes, almost to a fault - with the broader employee base about company direction and strategy. - Scaled, innovative culture; start-up feel at a 700+ person company. Great perks, above-average benefits. - Merit-based performance review: top individual contributors and managers are afforded growth opportunities both vertically and horizontally within the organization. This is not a place where you should ever feel stifled - if you have a way to improve upon process or output, don't ask. Just do it. Even if it doesn't stick, you will be recognized. - Let's be clear: this is a values-based company. Yes, it is publicly traded. But it hasn't been profitable in the 2.5 years since IPO'ing, and if the C-levels were concerned about proving to Wall Street the company could turn a profit, they would have fired the majority of its sales staff like EVERY other ad tech company has already done.

Cons

- Engineering turnover. Understandable in the Bay Area. - Compensation has improved, but remains at- or below-market. - Organizational communication and general infrastructure are wanting. The nature of the industry and the reality of technology companies means that the company often sacrifices long-term stability for short-term relief.

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