What Working At Stripe Has Been Like • Hacker News Board

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#51

Post by gscott » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:37 PM UTC

iooi wrote: post #16

This is one of the few blogs where I'll always read the entire article, consistently great writing and thought-provoking ideas. I agree with the other commenter regarding the Stripe application process. I've applied 2-3 times starting in 2015 and as recently as early 2020 and have never heard back, it's been the only company that never gets back to me! Everything worked out, since I've landed some great positions at…

It is likely they don't really have many open positions no matter how good the applicants are. Seems they have some outside of the USA specific positions open.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#52

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:39 PM UTC

_corym wrote: post #12

Kind of crazy how all these articles come out about what it's like working at Stripe and how to apply. Everyone I've talked to who has applied has not received a response from their application. Even in my most recent experience I wrote a cover letter, reached out to multiple Stripe recruiters. Most of them either ignored me, or said that they were not working on that role and said my status is still "pending". I ima…

[deleted]

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#53

Post by novok » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:40 PM UTC

iooi wrote: post #16

This is one of the few blogs where I'll always read the entire article, consistently great writing and thought-provoking ideas. I agree with the other commenter regarding the Stripe application process. I've applied 2-3 times starting in 2015 and as recently as early 2020 and have never heard back, it's been the only company that never gets back to me! Everything worked out, since I've landed some great positions at…

It's such a basic thing too for a recruiting process. As soon as you get a no, send an automated email at least!

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#54

Post by neilparikh » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:40 PM UTC

slumpt_ wrote: post #45

wbronitsky wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, stories like this are par for the course. While at Stripe, a few of my close friends and former co-workers were treated so poorly during the application process that I stopped referring anyone over a year before I left.

Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these blog posts are just astroturfing. Well designed astroturfing, nonetheless. Edit: Astroturfing is the wrong word, perhaps. What I mean to say is vocalized better in the replies. These all should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. A rock of salt?

These blog posts claim that they enjoy working at Stripe. The comments claim that the application/hiring process at Stripe is not great.

It's entirely possible both are true, since they're mostly unrelated, so I don't understand the accusation of astroturfing.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#55

Post by Chris_Newton » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

An interesting read as usual from Patrick.

I picked up on a few points others here have mentioned already, but the most striking thing for me, particularly from the first half of the piece, is the huge emphasis on growth, recruitment and looking to do new things in the internal culture at Stripe.

Of course, this is reasonable and understandable for a business in Stripe’s position. However, the corollary seems to be a lack of focus on the core service that got many of our businesses using Stripe in the first place. In a nutshell, we use a payment processor like Stripe because we want to easily and reliably collect payments from our customers, so we can get on with what our business actually does.

It would be interesting to know how much is going on at Stripe, presumably involving people other than patio11, in that area. I have a business that was an early adopter back when Stripe launched in the UK, but our perception is that the challenges we face with online payments today aren’t necessarily the areas that recent developments at Stripe are addressing.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#56

Post by slumpt_ » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

wbronitsky wrote: post #50

slumpt_ wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these blog posts are just astroturfing. Well designed astroturfing, nonetheless. Edit: Astroturfing is the wrong word, perhaps. What I mean to say is vocalized better in the replies. These all should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. A rock of salt?

I don't see how that would be possible. If you say you like working someplace, we know that you work there. You couldn't possibly be hiding who is paying you. I don't think that is a fair accusation. I think it would be much better said that we should take with a grain of salt anyone's assessment of their current job.

Fair. Wrong word choice. The point just being that there could be a lot of company... encouragement... to be vocal about what you think of working at the org.

And of course, to the point you raise, we must always take that with a grain of salt. Nobody is going to come to the table with complete honesty about the problems at a company with their name right next to it.

Within reason, at least.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#57

Post by ditonal » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

pc wrote: post #21

_corym wrote: post #12

Kind of crazy how all these articles come out about what it's like working at Stripe and how to apply. Everyone I've talked to who has applied has not received a response from their application. Even in my most recent experience I wrote a cover letter, reached out to multiple Stripe recruiters. Most of them either ignored me, or said that they were not working on that role and said my status is still "pending". I ima…

I'm sorry to hear this and apologize. We're definitely still a comparatively small team wishing we had more efficient ways to handle our inbound funnel. (We do have some ideas here.) But this is good feedback and we should absolutely have provided a better experience.

Stripe was founded over ten years ago, is worth tens of billions of dollars, thousands of employees, and has tons of software expertise. And the excuse for bad candidate experience is a lack of resources.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#58

Post by patio11 » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

neilparikh wrote: post #49

OT question: > AppAmaGooBookSoft have individual products with more engineers than our company has people total. Which products would have more than 3000 engineers?

Amazon has publicly said is has 10k+ on Alexa/Echo, and you're welcome to get other examples from chatting with folks.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#59

Post by mgraczyk » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:42 PM UTC

_corym wrote: post #12

Kind of crazy how all these articles come out about what it's like working at Stripe and how to apply. Everyone I've talked to who has applied has not received a response from their application. Even in my most recent experience I wrote a cover letter, reached out to multiple Stripe recruiters. Most of them either ignored me, or said that they were not working on that role and said my status is still "pending". I ima…

I interviewed in March, thought I did really well in the interviews, had great conversations with the hiring manager etc. After Covid hit they told me they were postponing hiring decisions and I never heard anything since. Sort of a weird way to manage things but I suppose the lockdowns have added quite a bit of chaos.

Re: What Working At Stripe Has Been Like

#60

Post by gamblor956 » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 8:44 PM UTC

slumpt_ wrote: post #45

wbronitsky wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, stories like this are par for the course. While at Stripe, a few of my close friends and former co-workers were treated so poorly during the application process that I stopped referring anyone over a year before I left.

Yeah. I wouldn't be shocked if a lot of these blog posts are just astroturfing. Well designed astroturfing, nonetheless. Edit: Astroturfing is the wrong word, perhaps. What I mean to say is vocalized better in the replies. These all should be taken with a substantial grain of salt. A rock of salt?

It's possible for both (a) people to enjoy working at a company and (b) for that company's recruitment process to be abysmally bad.

The people handling the recruiting functions are usually not the people you would be working with (unless you go into HR), and generally if HR starts ghosting you during the recruiting process it's because they're putting their efforts into the candidate they are trying to hire.

EDIT: Conversely, the opposite is also true. I used to work for a firm that was an absolute nightmare to work for, but the HR process was amazing.