Work life balance as software engineer at Intercom?

stainluss

Anybody here working at this startup? It looks amazing but I get the impression that (as with many startups) might have consistently tough hours (50+ hr/week). Anyone have any insight?

awec

5 years old and over 250 employees? I wouldn't describe that as a startup any more.

If a company has that many people, is 5 years old and is as successful as they claim to be, and has people consistently working 50+ hr weeks then they're taking the piss IMO.

Aswerty

Just from general awareness of them. I wouldn't image they're the sort of company that would be cracking the whip. They've had no issue raising funding and they seem to have a strong customer base, a good revenue stream, and a very scalable business model.

And from hearing talks from the founders, and talking to guys that previously worked with them. I've just heard good things. Albeit the conversation never ventured towards conditions within Intercom.

5 years old and over 250 employees? I wouldn't describe that as a startup any more.

I'm sure someone could write a PhD on the label "startup". Google clings to the word like a dying man clings to life. I think the psychology is that in this industry once you're no longer a startup you're considered ripe for disruption! And everyone wants to be the disrupter not the disruptee.

14ned

stainluss wrote: »

Anybody here working at this startup? It looks amazing but I get the impression that (as with many startups) might have consistently tough hours (50+ hr/week). Anyone have any insight?

https://www.glassdoor.ie/Reviews/Intercom-Reviews-E1035935.htm looks like the company asked employees to write glowing reviews of itself

Now, most of those reviews come from the SF side of things, and Intercom is well known for being "weird" and placing its R&D in Ireland and back office in the US which is the opposite of almost everyone else.

So I suspect it won't be too awful in the Dublin office. R&D doesn't work well with sustained long days, the lack of time to reflect ruins the 'R' part.

The work should also be more interesting than at most places. I'd give it a punt if I were you, see what happens. But as with all startups with insecure funding, there is an enhanced risk curve with such roles, and also as with all startups there can be a poor tradeoff of good design and practice to getting lines of code out the door. Just make sure any pension they pay goes into a personally attached account, otherwise assume you'll never see it when weighing up their offer.

Niall

experiMental

I have shared an office space with Intercom before. That was before they got funding. The team was very small back then. The lads didn't work that much - sometimes in at 10 a.m, out at 4 p.m... and they talked an awful lot. I think they got stuff done because they have done actual work whenever they felt like it.

People work 50+ hours in environments which are driven by deadlines. However, whether they deliver the work to a decent standard in the end is debatable.

OP : if you are applying to Intercom, it's best to be on the same page as the rest of the team, from a mental point of view. Then if you share a similar vision and outlook on software as your co-workers, you will not have to pull in massive hours.

mloc123

I know about 3-4 people working there. They all say that the work/life balance is good... that said, I went or a informal interview there about 18 months ago and decided not to follow through with the process.

For context, I am in my early-mid thirties with a child now and felt I would be one of the oldest people there... for me it seemed like a great company to be in if you are in your 20s with no hard commitments.

stainluss

experiMental wrote: »

OP : if you are applying to Intercom, it's best to be on the same page as the rest of the team, from a mental point of view. Then if you share a similar vision and outlook on software as your co-workers, you will not have to pull in massive hours.

Thanks for your response.

I agree that this would certainly make working in a dev team far easier, but in what way would it reduce the amount of time worked? You hardly mean from an office politics point of view, do you? :P

14ned

stainluss wrote: »

Thanks for your response.

I agree that this would certainly make working in a dev team far easier, but in what way would it reduce the amount of time worked? You hardly mean from an office politics point of view, do you? :P

I've worked with a lot of clients over the years, and almost always the teams far above and beyond the average team I've seen don't work more than 30-35 hours per week even if they're physically in the office for the requisite hours.

The very best teams write very few bugs to begin with, plan far in advance of need, and deliver on schedule even for ground breaking blue sky new work. Therefore they never need to rush anything or cram hours into anything because it's a very well oiled machine which can be trusted and relied upon.

If you want very high quality, very maintainable and beautiful architecture then it's always a slow and steady wins the race environment. You can't rush quality, not ever.

As with all orgs, Intercom will have some outstanding teams and some mediocre ones. Most will be somewhere in between. If you get to F2F, the biggest question you need to answer is what kind of team you're interviewing to join. It's my biggest problem with Google interviews actually, the people you interview with aren't usually the people you'll work with.

Niall

Singer

I've worked in Intercom for 2 years, consistently 50+ hour weeks are most definitely not the norm! Happy to take more questions, feel free to DM if you want to pop into the office or want more info