7
eNPS Score
Q&A With Puppet Employees
Here at Puppet, we’re passionate about helping both our customers and our employees love their jobs, do meaningful work, and achieve a healthy work-life balance. Working for Puppet may be just the breath of fresh air your career needs. We’re driven and collaborative, creative and disciplined. We're experimental, brave, open and communicative. We argue, give each other credit, share company metrics and lunch on weekly basis. We prefer Google Docs to PowerPoint, and you'll have a big screen on your sit-stand desk.
How employees describe working at Puppet
Miserable place to work with no visibility to career progression or even a successful product
I've been at Puppet for over five years and this is our 3rd CEO. I feel more confident having Yvonne in the CEO role than any one previously.
I’ve found the leaders to be accessible and lots of opportunity to grow. I work with incredibly smart and hard working individual
Review from Marketing Dept
Early days were great, where it was clear what the direction of the company was, and everyone was excited about the journey. Now it's very much throwing ideas at a wall and seeing what sticks, making employees uncertain on direction and end goals.
Review from Engineering Dept
I loved my role and my coworkers but promotions and recognition for your work were non-existent.
What it's like to work at Puppet
- Puppet employees generally work 8.8 hrs a day
- Employees at Puppet report the work pace is comfortably fast
- On a typical day, employees at Puppet have 4+ meetings
- 89% of Puppet employees look forward to interacting with their team every day
- Puppet employees most often take 20-30 paid vacation and sick days each year
- 85% of Puppet employees report they are happy with their work life balance
- Puppet employees typically get valuable feedback on how to improve at work Once a quarter
- 74% of Puppet employees call their work environment positive
Q&A With Puppet Employees
IDX: 0 TOT: 36
How's the vacation policy at Puppet?
In Germany, 25 days / year. In the USA, they allow unlimited time off.
It's awesome and one of the best benefits here. Management is super flexible, but you get 5 weeks of PTO.
Don't work there. It's a terrible place, oddly one of the few remaining that openly embraces stack-ranking, and for which use cases are significantly narrowing for its culture of arrogance/self-righteous "You must model the end state!!" - orthodoxy now bordering on the absurd. The politics are many-layered, tribal, aggressively manipulative and uniquely Orwellian, especially for an organization of its (rapidly diminishing) size. Although alternating between the now familiar IRS-loophole subterfuge of "unlimited!" and *very* loosely/arbitrarily defined, completely unwritten, and "at the discretion of mgmt" purported 5 weeks, taking any vacation longer than a week, or exceeding 2 weeks in a year will most certainly relegate you to "tier 2" status or worse, some form of inventively punitive managerial retaliation. It's a desperate place full of desperate people, hierarchized according to "flash over substance" theatrics and "perception is reality" dishonesty.
What part of Puppet's business is growing fastest? What part is having difficulties?
Top Employee Response
The product is growing quickly but the hiring is moving slowly.
Open source tools
It seems like everything is growing and moving fast, which causes change. Adaptability to change is a must in order to succeed here.
What's the interview process like at Puppet?
Top Employee Response
Varies greatly based on department, but there is a very thorough vetting process from the very beginning. Most positions in engineering require some sort of sample test or problem solving.
It can vary, but generally: 1. You apply. 2. A recruiter will do a first-touch screening call to gather salary requirements and gauge your background and expectations against the role. 3. A team member may do a tech screen after that, or a manager may ask for you to do an exercise of some kind to further vet ability levels. 4. On-site interviews usually last about half a day (4-5 hours) and include several sessions with anywhere from 1-3 team members. On the engineering side, you might whiteboard how you'd solve a problem with a principal developer. Some teams might ask for a panel presentation in front of the whole team. 5. Post-interview, you might have to hang out for up to a week, depending on how many other candidates there are and how their availability has lined up.
Collaboration is really important to us. We rely on a group interview process to ensure a broad set of input.
If you could make changes, how would you improve the culture at Puppet?
Get a new and innovative marketing leader.
More transparency. Executives initiating engagement between themselves and non executives. Trust the people you hired to do their job.
Does Puppet drug test or do a background check?
Not when I was hired there, back in December 2017.
no
How often do employees get raises at Puppet?
Once a year.
What are the differences between maternity and paternity leave at Puppet?
12 weeks maternity, 6 weeks paternity
What should I wear for an interview at Puppet?
Business casual
How common is it to switch departments or teams at Puppet?
Not common by choice. Common due to restructuring.
What is the dress code at Puppet?
Nothing official, other than to dress respectfully. In EMEA (where I worked) dress was generally more conservative than in the US, but that's the same in regular life. So while in the US you might see people schlepping around in shorts and T, in the UK it was more slacks and a casual button-up.
How long does it take to hear back after applying to Puppet?
Not too long. I got an offer within a week or two of completing the interviews.
How long after an interview at Puppet does it take to hear back?
It went fairly quickly. I got feedback within a couple days after each interview.
How long do the interviews usually take at Puppet?
Four or five interview sessions totaling about five hours.
How would you describe your overall experience interviewing at Puppet?
Positive. People are motivated to hire great candidates and have good tools to do that.
What's the pay like for Engineering roles at Puppet?
Trailing market lately.
What's the vibe like in the Engineering dept at Puppet? How many hours are you working?
Hours are sane. The vibe is a little moody.
What's the Engineering team like at Puppet?
Bright and inspired, but pretty tired of constant change and confused messages from above.
How's the leadership on the Engineering team at Puppet?
Confused. Middle managers aren't very well supported.
How do I do well in an interview at Puppet?
Come ready to speak to what you've done and accomplished, not how you *think* things should be. Puppet's behavioral interview style isn't about theory or hypotheticals. If you give vague or conceptual answers, interviewers pick up on that and will be pretty persistent about describing your accomplishments. Along with that, just admit when you haven't done a specific thing and either figure out something you've done that's involved comparable skills or let the interviewer move on. Nothing worse than wasting precious interview time because a candidate won't just come and say, "I've never done anything like that."
What's the vibe like in the Marketing dept at Puppet? How many hours are you working?
Super friendly. Spike in work hours around events/launches- but that's normal.
What's the Marketing team like at Puppet?
Huge. Seems a bit odd to have so many people and still utilize outside vendors, but maybe this is normal?
What's the office layout like at Puppet?
In the Portland office, it's an open office plan that's getting a little crowded in some spots as we grow.
What benefits does Puppet provide?
Top Employee Response
- HSA or PPO health insurance with dental and vision (your choice, Puppet contributes to HSA to offset what would be extremely high deductible costs) - 401k with up to $1000 (total) contribution from Puppet - 5 weeks flexible vacation - 6 weeks paid maternity leave - Up to 7 weeks additional paid (60%) disability leave for mothers who've had cesarian section deliveries (5 weeks for natural births) - Adoption & Fertility Assistance up to $5,000
What are some of the best things about your team at Puppet?
open and optimistic, helpful and happy
What does the leadership team at Puppet need to get better at?
People management.
Curious about what work's like at Puppet?
Anonymously Ask Puppet Employees Any Question
Should I work at Puppet?
38% of Puppet employees would encourage their friends to become coworkers, whereas 31% are neutral and 31% would not recommend working at Puppet to their friends.
| 38% | Promoters |
|---|---|
| 31% | Passive |
| 31% | Detractors |
