Signal Reviews

3.2

46% would recommend to a friend

(48 total reviews)

Lisa Weinstein

76% approve of CEO

38% positive business outlook

Signal has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 48 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Signal employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

48 reviews
2.0
12 Nov 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Snacks - Good health insurance - Decent dental and vision - Unlimited vacation (bitter sweet I only took a week off) - Remote flexibility - Nice sunlit office - Convenient location - I learned a lot in my brief time there. The challenges were at times immense but getting through them made me better at my job and more hirable for my next gig - Standing desk upon request - Packed stationary closet - Emergency deodorant if you were having a smelly day - Lots of happy hours and free meals - Smart and fun colleagues - My immediate boss was amazing. A real advocate and incredibly intelligent

Cons

I experienced more discrimination at this work place than any other place I have worked - After some transparent conversations it became clear there were pay discrepancies solely based on my social identity - All the people of color were either fired or left my immediate team during the course of my time at the company - At one point I was the only person of color on my team and I was treated very differently than my white counterparts, unfortunately. I was given a disproportionate amount of responsibility without appropriate acknowledgement. Instead, I was berated or reprimanded by upper management in front of my teammates - The company as a whole is struggling deeply. In the months I was there the CTO left, the founder/CMO quit out of the blue without saying a word, the newly appointed CMO quit, the VP of engineering quit, the most tenured workers all quit. The CEO is a sweet kind man but with the upper management being so unstable I don’t know how long the company will be around unless there is a radical shift in revenue and management Some stats and facts from the most recent layoffs that I calculated, 10/4/2018: - 100% of queer women of color were laid off - 50% of queer men of color were laid off - 50% of the women engineers were laid off - 1/3 of people of color at the company were laid off - Of the total recent layoffs 75% of the people were from a marginalized group in tech No 401 K match

1.0
3 Sept 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice office, great perks, great people.

Cons

The company has few happy clients. Two rounds of layoffs in one year and most people are looking to get out before another. Product is stale. Vision for the future is murky. The new "fixer" CEO has few solid ideas and the walls keep crumbling around her. There might not be anything left before a direction is taken.

2.0
5 Nov 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

What really set Signal apart from other tech companies is the culture they strived to promote - colleagues became very close friends, even outside of work, C-suites were more accessible, friendly, and kind to everyone no matter their pay grade. Everyone worked hard and in turn, played hard, and we were also encouraged to meet people within the company we wouldn't normally talk to, and encouraged to travel, learn, and give organization-wide talks about what we know, have learned, or even just hobbies outside of work. Hack weeks and shark weeks were some of my favorite past times at Signal. The work at Signal was rewarding when the product actually had a direction that made sense- the day-to-day was always new, different, and challenging, and never felt repetitive. The problems we solved in code were always interesting - paired programming was something I enjoyed with other engineers at Signal. My team in particular was a well-oiled machine, I can honestly say that being surrounded by truly brilliant and forward-thinking human beings is such a treat of coming to work everyday. My rapid growth at Signal can directly to be attributed to the quality of my teammates, and I can only hope to work with those same people again in another setting.

Cons

A significant lack of transparency has been a long-time issue at Signal. Executive decisions are made, it seems, under the table, and then when worst comes to worst, they put a "spin" on it. Sales revenue has been problematic for a long time, and product has scrambled over the past year to find their "true north". Some senior level managers constantly have a "need to help them understand" about concepts that have time and time again been explained, while they tend to pawn off their actual day to day job description responsibilities on seemingly everyone else around them, then takes credit for their work. Not to mention, marketing unwisely overspends on truly questionable campaigns, and everyone else at the company pays the price for it. I understand phases of attrition aren't uncommon at startups, but I wouldn't quite consider Signal to be a startup anymore. The current CTO and Engineering VP have incredibly large shoes to fill, and unfortunately, it is a shared opinion that the CTO sorely needs to work on communicating effectively - instead of being cold and tactless. It should also be pointed out that not enough higher-level positions throughout the entire organization are being held accountable. Somehow everyone in Sales and Marketing gets promoted multiple times each year, while getting a promotion in nearly any other department is equal to pulling teeth. On the topic of accountability, the way that complaints of sexual harassment are handled by Signal's HR department are very confusing, and they have historically not been great at dealing with them. Managers can get away with being extremely inappropriate to their subordinates, or generally anyone lower on the totem pole. Their consequences? Barely a slap on the wrist - if even - is given to them. A repeat offender was actually given a promotion not long after being reported! We're knee-deep in the #MeToo movement, Signal. Let's not have these poorly-handled situations written in history.

avatar
Signal Response
7y
We agree: Signal is friendly, accessible, rewarding, challenging, brilliant and forward-thinking. We strive to maintain those aspects of our culture as we transition from our previous life as a nimble, entrepreneurial startup to an efficient, focused company. The road can be bumpy and will certainly be marked by some detours, hills and valleys, so we appreciate your candor. Your feedback around topics like harassment is especially timely given that we recently completed our annual training addressing respectful workplace behavior. We agree that this topic is important and complex.
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Glassdoor has 52 Signal reviews submitted anonymously by Signal employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Signal is right for you.