Pros
How can I describe my experience at Checkout? It was certainly a journey. Right from the start I had a positive impression of the company. The multi-step interview process was transparent and professional throughout. Necessarily complex, but not over-the-top. The engineers with whom I interviewed had read my technical test and discussed it with me as part of the interview, which is not always a given in the industry. For the interview itself I was flown to Berlin, where we had a friendly but professional conversation about technology and my new role.
The onboarding week was an experience. The company ensured that I was comfortable for the week that I stayed in London, where I was introduced to the payments domain. With guidance I became acquainted with elements of the tech stack that I would use in my role as a Senior Software Engineer at Checkout. The modern office had a bustling energy, which can seem intimidating at first. In addition, the start of my role was chaotic due to the speed at which the company is growing, but I got through it and joined the acquiring team in Berlin to work alongside a talented engineer.
In my role I was supported by my line manager. who was open, helpful and prompt. He assisted with the coordination of work with other teams, promoted a positive team spirit, and often arranged team events such as conference visits or team lunches. One year we visited NDC London 2020. In the 2 years I worked in this team we managed to deliver several new and challenging projects that would add value to the company by extending the supported payment mechanisms. At the time I left the company, the acquiring team was steadily growing and had on-boarded some highly skilled engineers with experience in competitive programming, clean coding, JIRA management, monitoring and an expert in the card processing domain.
The wider Checkout tech team is full of experts who are more than happy to help with finding solutions to problems. Knowledge sharing events happen regularly and cover a wide range of topics, from functional programming and architecture presentations to sessions on the low-level implementation details on interaction with the largest payment processors. There’s always more to learn.
Checkout invests a lot of resources into creating a meaningful and diverse company culture, with communities and groups targeting various concerns, including fund-raising for charity, sport events, gaming, mental health, women in the workplace as well as gender and sexuality issues. Employee health is an important part of the offering, with mental health workshops, guided yoga practices and annual retreats. There’s a lot on offer! Take advantage of that.
The company was good enough to offer me a sabbatical so that I could pursue a passion of mine but I chose to leave the company voluntarily as I wasn't sure how long it would take for me to achieve my goals.
Cons
The company is growing very rapidly due to several rounds of funding and acquisitions, which can be difficult to deal with if you are an employee who is averse to change at all. In addition, due to the size of the company, it is often difficult to understand how the individual contributes to the larger whole.
