Philo Reviews

4.7

100% would recommend to a friend

(22 total reviews)
avatar

Andrew McCollum

100% approve of CEO

92% positive business outlook

Philo has an employee rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars, based on 22 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Philo employee rating is 22% above average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

22 reviews
3.0
14 Nov 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Relatively laid-back atmosphere, competent and friendly people. Half of the code was very well-written and organized. Recruiting process is pretty solid, although it does seem that sometimes engineering candidates were put on hold if someone better was in the pipeline. Other teams like support are really on the ball.

Cons

The biggest con was that about half of the tech stack was written in a way that was not easily maintainable, testable or scalable, to the point where even minor updates were frustrating. Some major stakeholders were opposed to change and were often not present at the office or not responsive. Technical leadership was somewhat lacking.

5.0
15 Nov 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Philo is a wonderful place to work. The culture is very friendly and inclusive. Currently a good size: not so big as to be impersonal, but not so small as to require crazy hours or wearing too many hats. Hours are flexible and rational, and vacation is encouraged (and exemplified by leadership). Benefits are decent for a company of the size/history/funding. The leadership is technical, and are very open and accessible. The building's nice, and centrally-located in SoMa. The engineering culture specifically is great. Meetings and unneeded process are kept to a minimum; what do exist for those are constantly iterated on to find what works and what doesn't. There's a big focus on learning and sharing knowledge, both within teams and throughout the department. The org structure is mostly flat, with ideas and technical competency trumping hierarchy and seniority. We strike a good balance between shipping code and minimizing technical debt — and all team members ship code, regardless of title. We work with cutting-edge technologies where they make sense, but avoid dogma on either side of that debate. Engineers aren't silo'd into working on one specific thing, but are free to work on what they find interesting. Discussions and debate are encouraged, with an eye toward making sure even the quieter team members have their say. Recruiting is a department-wide concern, and we're prioritizing diversity in hiring.

Cons

Nit picking, really: 401k matching would be nice, and will likely happen in a future stage of the company.

5.0
4 Nov 2022

Confirmed: great place to work!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Great culture and leadership. Emphatic management that offers good benefits and working conditions. - Smart, humble & collaborative people in every department. Great builders and thinkers. Excited about (effective) innovation. - Good product (& healthy business) in a tough industry. - Good opportunities for personal development and company growth.

Cons

Philo does does a lot with a little. The headcount difference between world-renowned streaming services (& their financial backing) and Philo is significant, and this translates into challenges keeping up with the latest trends (and/or fads). (And the streaming industry is always been evolving very fast!) I don't mind this position, as it requires us to be thoughtful to keep the business healthy and the people happy, and we seem to be quite successful at this. That being said, I'm sure some people could experience this as a negative as their ideas and ambitions might outpace what is realistically possible. Another manifestation of this is that finding the trade-off between code quality and new feature development can be tough. However: 1/ I might be wrong, as I'm not active as an engineer at Philo; 2/ I feel that we are getting better at this, and that we're taking the right steps to improve this (and hiring the right profiles for it); 3/ I have yet to find a tech company that was truly happy with their tech stack.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 22 Reviews

Glassdoor has 25 Philo reviews submitted anonymously by Philo employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Philo is right for you.