Q&A With Spredfast Employees

LONG and drawn out. Want a job here? Enjoy interviewing for 3 months.

Casual

Black, because the place was buried some time ago.

He is so un-personable. Definitely treats people as a number rather than a name kind of guy. He talks great game & his style is super laid back, which makes people believe he is down to earth, yet if you actually listen to the conversations he has with people, he isn't super knowledgeable about the products/features/abilities or the teams that work on the product. He is a great mascot for the team, people recognize him, he is cool, he talks great game, and is a major player in a boy's club environment.

Hold leadership accountable. Invest more in training and growth of the employee (they say they do this, but they don't. You don't have time too). Focus less on "being cool" and more on the wellbeing of your current employees. See someone who is burnt out? Find out what you can do to help.

Social Media Management of course is growing, because more and more companies want it. Analytics is growing as well, because without data to back up the success of social media, companies don't spend money on it. However, the stability of the product turns some customers away. Even though the UI is one of the best in the field, having a nice UI that you can't use due to bugs & outages is pointless. Areas for displays (Experiences) and real time data (Intelligence) are stalled. There are too many free options with more features that a customer can use.

Draw a toilet. If you had a time machine where would you go? What special skills do you have? How are you under pressure? If a customer was upset how would you handle the situation? Tell us about a time you failed.

Most were pretty nice and fun individuals. Were they good at their jobs? They definitely could be, but most were so burnt out that if they did do their job, at all, it was passive aggressively done.

It looks relaxed, but it is a lot of underlying panic, that can be felt surging through the air. The open floor plan is there to make you feel like everyone is the same, however the placement of where your desk is, definitely reminds you that you are not.

The relationships made with customers & the ability to network with them.

Health, Dental, Vision, Transportation Reimbursement, Cell Phone reimbursement (*some departments*), free lunch (very average), free snacks, free drinks, beers, cold brew, alcohol, lots of free shirts and ways to earn bonus items (YouEarnedIt), maternity leave (based off of tenure), paternity leave (but they are not as on board with spousal leave if you are same-sex)

Fake. Everything the company does is to look cool. Don't fit the hipster-esque persona? You might be hired, but you won't be included in a lot of the "cool" things the company does. The culture is also very different culture wise between the different areas. Devs are so much more down to earth and cool. 90% of them are people that you'd enjoy being friends with outside of work and they create a fun, but semi-nerdy, environment. The rest of the company is too focused on fancy milk shake stations at events, and ACL or SXSW, and what extreme liberal individual will be speaking at Summit (which not all employees are invited too even though it is right across the dang street from the office). If you are looking for cold brew & beer on tap and are a hipster (bonus points if you are a true millennial) you might love this place.

There is very little work life balance. Your life becomes your job.

They are slow as heck. You are transitioned into the new role and then you do all the new roles duties, but you aren't promoted for months. You are just doing two roles for your old role's pay. And if you say anything about it, it is a blame game amongst leadership & HR. If you are promoted and it is a quick thing, it is either because they are trying to beef up your resume before they lay you off, or it is because you aren't going to get a fair pay raise.

Unlimited but at manager's discretion, which is kind of a hot mess. Some managers are cool with you basically taking like 3 months off, which others get hot and bothered about 2 weeks off. It's unfortunate because this happens within the same team. You are under the same umbrella as someone else, but since you have a different manager, you don't get the same perks.

Depends. You might be moving into a new role and the raise you are given is less than 2%, even though the new role is an upgrade from your old role. You also might be creating a new role entirely and your raise is enormous. It all depends on who you are. Asking for a raise also puts you on HR's naughty list. Basically, sit and wait for your "yearly raise." This is when they do promotions as well, so you don't get a yearly raise and a boost in salary due to promotions. They can just bump you slightly up in pay and call it a day.

Always crazy busy.

Some of the people on the teams and the passion for the product. Beautiful UI, even if the backend code is a hot mess. Most of the customers are awesome too.

Not secure at all. When there is a product outage (which for a SAAS company there are a lot), you feel like this will be the day that you are losing your job. Every all hands scheduled or random meeting thrown on the calendar with the C level team, you are sweating bullets just praying they pay your severance. They are continuously "cleaning house" to go public and you are always in fear that you are next.

Far and few between. They used to be all the time, then they were minimized to 1 or 2 a year. Now they are basically non-existent for a lot of teams.

White men. Doesn't matter if you do your job or not. Don't do your job? Let's move you up to a new position to see if you'll do that job. Overly aggressive and a white male, let's definitely move you up. Do your job? You'll eventually move up, however your team mates who just play around all day will beat you up the ladder, especially if you are a female.

AWFUL. Don't give feedback. You give it to management and they ignore it and right it off. You give it to leadership and they direct you to management. You give it to HR and you get pointed to leadership or you get in trouble. All feedback given to HR is counted as against you. Give too much, even if it is constructive, and you'll be on the next round of layoffs. Definitely a keep your feedback to yourself kind of company.

At first I loved it, then I felt like the only reason I went was because I loved the product. The role itself was plagued with long hours and days ran into each other.

Know somebody and make sure the person you know is in a higher up level.

An average amount. The most challenging part is wearing too many hats, due to staffing, or getting support from leadership. The jobs them self aren't super challenging. The products are complex but user friendly enough that they aren't super hard to learn.