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      Stack Overflow

      Engaged employer

      Stack Overflow Reviews

      3.3

      46% would recommend to a friend

      (284 total reviews)
      avatar

      Prashanth Chandrasekar

      50% approve of CEO

      30% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.3

      Compensation and benefits

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.8

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.6

      Culture and values

      2.9

      Career opportunities

      2.7

      Senior management

      Stack Overflow has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 284 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Stack Overflow 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

      284 reviews
      1.0
      7 Oct 2020

      Literally the worst company I have worked for

      Manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      To be honest, nothing at all. The fluffy benefits they offer don't mask the negatives.

      Cons

      Where do I begin. I was employed by Stack in October 2019. From the beginning, things just didn't seem quite right, and I really should have seen the red flags. Meeting with the Chief Financial Officer during my first week, our entire conversation was made up of him ridiculing my decision to live and work remotely in West Virginia, making his opinions known that it was a terrible place, and questioning why I wasn't in New York (where Stack HQ is). He said he'd pushed for my role to be based in New York, but nobody listened to him. RED FLAG NUMBER 1. I was asked to make one of my team members redundant as there wasn't a need for him in the London office. I didn't agree with the decision, but went ahead with the dismissal. I was specifically told that informing employees of redundancies is to be done by their line manager, which made sense to me. More on that process later... During the redundancy process for my London team member, I was also hiring for a replacement for another team member that decided he'd had enough and wanted to leave. I usually quite enjoy recruiting for new team members, it's an opportunity to bring in fresh ideas and knowledge from a new person. Stack's recruitment process is so backwards it's pretty ridiculous. They insist on having several stages to the process, and at each stage you are interviewed by a different team member. The problem is, if one team member isn't 100% sure on the candidate, they're immediately ruled out. You can have your ideal candidate, but if one of your colleagues isn't sure, you'll lose out on them. I had to rule out a candidate because one of the other interviewers thought that the candidate was "too much like her, and they would clash". In other words, you felt threatened by them because they were an extremely strong candidate. Whatever happened to having the strongest team possible? I guess that's fine, as long as they aren't threatening your role. Ridiculous. RED FLAG NUMBER 2. During the annual company meetup, the Director of Engineering disappeared one day and was never to be seen again. We were fed very little information, but it was completely odd and unexpected. Did she step down? Was she fired? Who knows. I'm sure it's common knowledge now, but we had no clue at the time. Seems like strange timing to leave or be fired during the company meetup. RED FLAG NUMBER 3. So January approaches, I have been at Stack for around 3 months. I get a meeting request from HR and the CTO for later that morning, never a good sign. Of course, it's them letting me know that my role would be made redundant. Brilliant. Hang on a sec, where was my spineless line manager at this meeting? Wasn't it "process" for line managers to deliver such news? Apparently not. I am thankful I no longer work for this toxic company, I urge you to reconsider if you are tempted into applying for a role here. I fell for it, they paint a rosy picture about working for such an awesome, progressive company. It's complete nonsense. I left a stable, rewarding career at a reputable company to join these clowns. Don't make the same mistake no matter how tempting it might be.

      4.0
      28 Oct 2020

      What's really going on here

      Product manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      As I read some of the very negative reviews of the company, I feel that they don't give a fair and accurate reflection of the company and the culture that I know. Stack Overflow is far from perfect, but one of the driving factors for a lot of the negativity you see here is that the company has been through a tremendous amount of upheaval over the last four years. I have found it to be a place with amazingly smart coworkers, and I have been able to grow my career here. Traditionally, it had a quirky and fun culture, where employees had a great deal of autonomy (although this culture is changing). Here are the strengths: 1. Our software developers (and our employees in general). Some of the smartest, kindest, most interesting and helpful people you could ever work with. You will see some negative things about our engineers here on Glassdoor, but here is what it stems from: Engineering under our previous CEO Joel Spolsky was the most powerful department in the company and for better and for worse, they had an outsized influence over all decisions that the company made. Over the last couple of years as our leadership team has completely changed, they have been relegated to a more traditional role (for better and for worse), which has been a factor in a lot of talented, long-term developers leaving. 2. Our new leadership team (also a con). Between 2017 and now, the entire leadership team has turned over - CEO, CFO, CTO, CMO, Product, Customer Support, Community, HR -- literally every function in the company. So, Stack Overflow is a completely different company vs. what it was a few years ago. The new regime is corporate and process driven (a jarring departure from the old guard), but they are forcing the company to grow up and be accountable for results. 3. Finances. Due to new leadership, we have become a company that is laser-focused on revenue and financial performance. That has produced a significant financial result: we recently raised $85 million in venture funding, no small feat for a 12-year-old tech company. Between the fall of 2017, when the company had a large layoff, and the tech raise this summer, a pall of financial uncertainty hung over the company. This resulted in more significant cuts in Q1 and Q2 2020, where a significant number of employees (with Sales and Marketing being the hardest hit) were furloughed and then later laid off permanently. For those of us who are left, getting that venture capital allows us all to breathe a huge sigh of relief, knowing that our jobs are safe, at least for a while. And it has made it possible for the company to begin the hiring spree that is currently under way. 4. Generous benefits. Fully paid medical care. And I mean fully paid: no insurance premiums, copays, prescription drug costs, etc. 5. Remote friendly. Before the pandemic, SO was about 40% remote. Now we are 100% remote until summer 2021. 6. An opportunity to grow and expand your career in new ways. There isn't a clear path to going from an individual contributor to senior leadership (since 7 of the 9 senior leadership roles were hired from the outside), but there is a precedent for individual contributors to move around and try out new roles. Some examples: a researcher who became a software developer, interns who became full-time developers, a marketer who became a product manager, a community manager who is now an HR recruiter. In the Product org, three former product manager individual contributors were promoted to directors/people managers.

      Cons

      1. Mission of the company. The company has changed from a developer-first mindset ("let's build the greatest Q&A platform to help the world's software developers level-up their skills and then somehow figure out how to make money") to a money-first mindset ("let's leverage the Stack Overflow brand name and web traffic to become a high-growth SaaS company while still paying lip-service to being developer-focused"). This caused some employees to become disillusioned and leave. 2. New leadership team. The new team can come across as corporate automatons who don't value the contributions of long-term employees. This almost caused me to leave. Recently, I've come to accept that they are not better or worse, just different. Before, we had a management team that was inexperienced, promoted from within and sometimes chaotic -- but people with great heart, an adventurous spirit, and an ambitious, mission-centered view of what the company could be. The new team is more traditional, hierarchical and top down -- a lot less fun, a lot less caring, somewhat indifferent to Stack Overflow's culture and traditions, but better able to drive business results. 3. Morale has been in the toilet across all departments for the last few years due to all the above-mentioned upheaval. I feel that we have turned a corner and people are starting to feel more hopeful. The company conducts weekly employee morale surveys (through a company called OfficeVibe), and the numbers overall have gone up. Attrition has also slowed from a flood to a trickle, but hard to gauge whether that's because people are happier or just unable to make a move in the pandemic job market. 4. Cracks in our armor. Stack Overflow was and still is, THE place where developers can find answers to their software questions. But in the process, we have created a 12-year-old site where rude, condescending comments are common place and a small group of power users resists any and all attempts to change the site in meaningful ways. Worse, we have created an us-against-them mentality with these power users (who moderate and contribute to our sites for free). We did this by neglecting the upkeep of our Q&A sites (since most of our internal focus is on our paid products), dismissing and publicly humiliating one of our most visible moderators (who we had to pay restitution to), and literally telling these power users that their voices don't matter. Thanks in part to the leadership of our new CTO, we have been trying to right our wrongs, make amends and rebuild our relationship with our power users, but significant damage was done. If an alternative to Stack Overflow emerges and/or Google changes its search algorithm, I fear our dominance would be in jeopardy.

      avatar
      Stack Overflow Response
      5y
      Wow, thanks for providing such amazing feedback. Very much appreciated. Talent Acquisition
      1.0
      8 Apr 2021

      Highly Toxic Environment -- BEWARE!

      Sales
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      There are pockets of very kind, generous, intelligent people dedicated to the mission of the company. Unfortunately most of these people are undervalued and are rarely recognized if they aren't in sales and making their numbers.

      Cons

      There are many: - First time CEO was hired in 2019 and his inexperience shows BIGTIME. He talks a good game but moves like an EMPTY SUIT. Feels like he's at the company for a quick flip, exit and payday. - Very TOXIC environment created by the CEO and CRO -- heavy meetings culture, undue stress imposed through unrealistic deadlines and micromanaging, a huge emphasis is placed on sales performance at the expense of all else. The management team presents a very confusing, non-transparent message on the company's direction. - Its very easy to see that the CEO favors sales especially the CRO (who is a mercenary sales leader). The CRO has been given carte blanche to run sales however he wants - During several town halls both the CEO and CRO explicitly said there would be no layoffs in Talent despite the product line being impacted by COVID. In fact, both gave the impression the Talent business was doing well on several occasions. The CRO was cheering us on as the quarter went on only to cut all of us suddenly one week after the quarter closed. Huge disconnect with the message vs. the actions of the management team - CRO regularly shames sales staff publicly for taking a day off or a minor mistake. Its disgusting and HR knows about it and should be embarrassed to allow this to happen. - There was been a steady decline in both gender and racial diversity (almost seems intentional this is coming from a white male) in a two month period our VP Customer Success, CFO, VP of People (all people of color) were all let go. The company positioned it as they voluntarily left but this was not the case. I've notice they have all been replace by non folks of color. Again HR knows about this and should be embarrassed to allow this to happen. Diversity and inclusion is a JOKE are this company-- again this is coming from a white male perspective! - Management did not invest in the Talent product for years, did not provide any marketing support for years yet expected all of sales to make their numbers consistently. Yet all Talent sales are laid off and no one from any other dept affect?

      avatar
      Stack Overflow Response
      5y
      Thank you for sharing your perspective on the company. There are many measures of diversity, and we strive for diversity in gender, race, capabilities, and more. Anytime someone leaves the company, we look at it as an opportunity to learn how we can be better as an organization. We are still actively searching for replacements for the leaders you referenced. From a recruiting perspective, we are continuing to focus on sourcing diverse candidates for all open positions. We are actively seeking feedback through surveys and open forums to improve our culture and processes, and will have specific action plans for our leadership team to work through cross-functionally to ensure Stack Overflow is a great place to work for all. The business decision impacting the Talent product was made in an effort to align our products with where our customers see the most value. While the change primarily impacted the sales team as we are no longer selling the product to new clients, we are highly appreciative of the hard work that went into the past decade to support the launch, growth, and success of the Talent products. We are continuing to work with some of those impacted to transition into other open positions, while supporting others through their transition back into the workforce. Hopefully this additional perspective is helpful in understanding some of the recent changes.
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      Glassdoor has 301 Stack Overflow reviews submitted anonymously by Stack Overflow employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Stack Overflow is right for you.