Checkout.com Software Engineer reviews

2.9

49% would recommend to a friend

(67 total reviews)
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Guillaume Pousaz

46% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Software Engineer employees have rated Checkout.com with 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 67 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Engineer professionals have an average working experience there. Checkout.com is rated 22% below average by Software Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

67 reviews
1.0
Dec 15, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Free lunch - Decent pay - Some good people (but running out fast)

Cons

An awful, awful place to work. Companies really show their true colours when things go badly and Checkout is in a death spiral. There is a revolving door of execs (10 in 18 months and counting!! 😂). Each new appointment weaker than the last, along with knee jerk changes in strategy every time. After the latest "shake up" nobody knows what anybody is or should be working on. Rumours spread faster than the truth, breeding a toxic working environment. The people who rise to the top do so by undermining others - individualism and ladder climbing is rewarded over collaboration. Questioning the direction is not permitted. One of our new "Operating principles" is Talk Straight, yet anonymous questions are banned. No one in the organisation would dare ask an uncomfortable question without that protection (those that do are swiftly and quietly exited) and Q&As have become meaningless as a result.

1.0
Nov 22, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The work is technically interesting and you can learn quite a bit. The company attracts some very talented people.

Cons

The company does give a good impression during the recruitment process but that fell apart shortly after I started. There was a huge amount of pressure and stress created by middle management who seemed to be focused on looking good to the higher ups with no regard at all for quality work or the well-being of their engineers. I didn't quite realise how badly working checkout was affecting me until I resigned. The office politics that came from above was savage and I saw fellow engineers and other teams being thrown under the bus by engineering management. They loaded me up with unrealistic deadlines to set me up for personal failure and got aggressive when I tried to push back yet preached "feel free to push back on deadlines" in team wide calls. It was clear that the various layers of management above the team were not honest to each other. A complete disaster and a mental health nightmare. My team regularly raised feelings of burnout and concerns about quality of work due to the pressure and volume of work being expected yet our managers did nothing to help this as that pressure was coming from them. Another thing is a lack of any investment in the engineers. We asked for one afternoon each month to up skill in something and got told no. At no stage did my manager/s ever discuss career growth or goals. The deadlines set were so tight there was no room for onboarding or investigations. Overall the company does not treat it's people well at all. This is a very toxic environment from the top down right through the middle management layers.

1.0
Oct 7, 2023

Absolutely toxic

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I meet a few good and outstanding people during my time at Checkout.com - sadly, they have moved on to other workplaces where they were not discriminated against because of not being male, or where they had actual growth opportunities.

Cons

Where do I even begin ... It feels very often like a place that crushes your dreams. You go in optimistic and hopeful, having been sold a certain story and hype, and day by day you realise you fell for something that wasn't there. Gender disparity is real and present especially in Technology. There are no women in leadership position - all the Senior Directors for example are male, there are no female VPs or SVPs, and there are no pathways for any of the existing female employees to get there, which leads to a very high turnover among females. For the males, you have to be in the Old Boys Club to get anywhere. If you're not, you are at best ignored, unless you get let go to pay for someone else's mistakes . The exec team are absolutely unapproacheable and performative , parrot out values and principles they don't care about and I would be hard pressed to find a situation in the past 7 years where I have seen any of them talking to the "normal" ( read "not VP and over" level ) willingly or naturally - unless again, they would do it to tell you off , ridicule you or make you feel irrelevant . The performance review cycle is long drawn out, and again, only the OBC members progress - and that is the rule everyone learns sooner or later. If you care about performance ratings , don't bother joining Checkout where " you have to be a five to get a three" and "everyone is a three" . Don't join if you hope you will have time for learning, development, or a strategy that is consistent and followed through - in all the years I have been here that hasn't happened. Everything you read in other reviewes is true and accurate; the exec team only care about the profit the company makes, despite the never ending stream of parroted company values , and you learn quickly you and everyone else around you is easily replaceable. IF you're in the OBC, you might survive or thrive to some extent. If you were brought in by an exec team member then you have a free hand to do whatever you want and rules and legislation be damned. You can sack whoever you want, or push people out disregarding any ethics considerations or existing policies, and bring in all your buddies to form a bubble of the Old Boys Club for your area. Salaries are average for most employees, although discussions with colleagues revealed men do get paid better than women. Benefits are laughable and very poor compared to similar companies, and they ignore most of the employee feedback/needs. Employee surveys of any kind land in a black hole they are never acted on again, and essentially, like the CEO said - if you don't like it , you can live. You have to admit at least he was honest about it and didn't pretend he cared about people.

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Checkout.com Response
2y
I am deeply saddened to hear that this was your experience- the Checkout.com that we are building is unrecognizable to me in your review. Point blank, we do not tolerate gender bias, discrimination, or bullying. As a long-time employee, you know one of our company OKRs is to increase female and non-binary representation and employee satisfaction. Like other Tech companies, we have work to do here (both in bringing in new women and promoting women within) – but we know it’s the right and only way forward. If you’re up for it, I’d love to speak with you 1:1 to understand your experience and see how we can take action to change your perception. If you are more comfortable speaking to someone else, please consider reaching out to your People Business Partner or our DEIB Program Manager. Your feedback- and experience- are important to me. ~Kerry, Chief People Officer
Viewing 37 - 39 of 67 Reviews

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