SoundHound Reviews

3.5

54% would recommend to a friend

(139 total reviews)

Keyvan Mohajer

64% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

SoundHound has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 139 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SoundHound 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

139 reviews
1.0
8 Jan 2023

Incompetent Leadership

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Kind, engaged coworkers. Interesting projects and problems to solve

Cons

Executive Leadership is horribly incompetent. Priorities are unclear and shift rapidly, making it impossible to get any meaningful work done before your project is deprioritized for something else. There seems to be little vision or future planning, just rushing after whatever client seems important at the time. Post-IPO, employees are treated as dispensible and secondary to the egos of executive leadership. Compensation is very low - salary is low relative to other companies, there's no 401k matching and no bonuses. Employees are rewarded with stocks that have turned out to be worthless. There is little opportunity for career growth. Only a chosen few favorites get to go to conferences, because of costs, and there is no other opportunity for training. Work is so hectic that there is not even time for self improvement / reading recent papers during working hours. And with recent layoffs, this is probably only going to get worse. Working hours are long, with little recognition. Impossible deadlines are set and many hours of work are put in, just for the project to be canceled or deprioritized after weeks of 12 hour days and weekends. In theory, there is a recognition program, but whether you're nominated is highly dependent on your manager and what project you happen to be assigned to. Middle management (in the eng org) is all engineers who have been promoted to management, and don't have any experience with managing, to the detriment of their teams. There are no core values. Despite initiating an effort to create a set of company core values more than a year ago, there have been no results. As a result, the company is lacking in any standardized vision, and has been steadily declining in terms. Diversity is lacking, and bias training is something that has only very recently been introduced, after many complaints

1.0
15 Dec 2022

Glassdoor is a battleground

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You're colleagues will be fantastic. A good experience is harder and harder to find.

Cons

Soundhound has recently started having negative reviews about the CRO and VP of Marketing removed. Instead of addressing the problems with them, we're having meetings with the VP of culture on getting better reviews on Glassdoor. The problems are nowhere near a secret to the rest of the company.

1.0
31 Oct 2022

Not a good time to join

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

SoundHound used to be a place where people felt valued and respected and where executives believed that an employees’ success was a shared responsibility between the employee and the company. The culture that grew from that mindset of mutual respect inspired innovation, loyalty, and employee longevity.

Cons

The company has lost its way. Founders and existing leadership didn’t take the time to communicate critical company values to new leadership hired in the last 18 months to fulfill high growth goals. As a result, the company was unable to retain its inclusive culture and passionate employees who stood by them through layoffs, salary cuts, and changes in business goals. Due to a change in executive leadership in the marketing department, 4 LBGTQ employees either left or were fired in less than 1 year, team building activities have been discouraged between managers and their teams, and aggressive and hostile language is used a a form of intimidation and control of employees at all levels. There is no room for growth or learning and executives lack empathy, humor, and communication. Even when employees are sick, grieving, or on PTO they are expected to be online and ready to work on demand. Top down management with a focus on micromanaging and lack of trust has led to a hostile environment that has taken away everything that matters to most professionals, including having a voice, real appreciation and acknowledgement for accomplishments, psychological safety and trust, and transparency and open communication. While these examples are from one department, team members across the organization have expressed similar concerns. HR is fully aware and has stated, “we know people will quit”—further evidence that the culture has shifted away from one of valuing employees. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention that salary and benefits are far below market rate and employees are forced to use limited PTO during holiday shutdowns.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 139 Reviews

Glassdoor has 163 SoundHound reviews submitted anonymously by SoundHound employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SoundHound is right for you.