Vantaggi
I figured I just hit my 2 year anniversary here and I could share some thoughts that might help you as a prospective colleague of ours make a very important career decision. Reviews in general are often biased by the extremes, I hope this gives you some objective information to evaluate. 1) Our market is large and growing, which is great for Onfido and our challengers in the market. When reviewing a company for potential employment, it all starts here. What is even better is the market is just starting to peak, a great time for joining. 2) Our product and technology were built for the long-term. We did not hurry or take short cuts, but we did have some gaps along the way as we built out a multi-component platform. This is not unlike any other industry that started from scratch. 3) We are absolutely non-compromising on hiring high quality people. Yes, this can create an open position for while, and in some cases we find out that a set of hires might not have been correct. But unlike a lot of companies, these adjustments are made promptly. These are never great experiences for the company or individuals involved. But, not acting is worse for both parties. 4) There is a lot of investment into the culture of the company, moreso relative to other companies I have seen. If you like the culture and it works for you, you will be satisfied with this aspect. No idea if off the table. 5) Our company goals are to win. It is that simple. That is going to bring huge expectations for effort, pace, creativity and quality. Want an easy job? We are not the right place. Want to work with people going big or going home? Take a deeper look. Enjoy pushing yourself and learning each day? Again, that is who we are.
Svantaggi
I look at this section as more "risks" and risks usually have mitigation factors as this size of company, so most things are fixable if not perfect today. However, there are some characteristics that might not be right for you that I will share, so you are not surprised in any way through our recruitment process or onboarding. 1) We are a very young company and as such we are going to make some unique mistakes. But, we are also going to do some things that are unique, bold and unaffected by past precedent bias. An old dog can learn new tricks here, but also directly impact experiential wisdom, which is directly sought out by this Learning culture. There are countless examples of world-class companies started by young founders with experienced executive teams. We of course aim to be the next great company and are not thinking about second place. However, this is a specific type of company unlike a more typical seasoned-CEO-led tech company. Hang on for the ride! 2) We were still dialing in our leadership team while we also had to build an execution team, which admittedly was not 100% perfect in execution. Hindsight is always 100% accurate and can be a cruel judge. But having key leaders in place is absolutely critical to building a great company and the good news 2019 saw the completion of the executive team some key VPs. We also have been continuously hiring fantastic talent into the organization at all levels. We all take hiring as a priority. 3) A global remit in this kind of product/company domain is huge and requires extreme prioritization. Getting good at that as a company requires deliberate practice and continual challenging. We get better at that each quarter, each year but rate ourselves hard on that and will always have room too improve, especially in a frothy market. 4) A global company needs extremely effective communicators internally and externally. This becomes a necessary part of your job, regardless of level. If you don't understand, embrace and execute this, it might not be the right place for you. You need to have thick skin, and constantly take feedback to calibrate your approach. But when you do, you will find that this extremely smart and hard working company will scale your thinking and efforts right along side. 5) Attacking the world from London is a unique angle. We are not your typical Silicon Valley company but we embody a lot of aspects of those companies in our executive leadership and operational pattens and how we look at building product that is massively useful to our customers. We hope to get the best of both worlds but this is a complex formula and one we will need to iterate further to get right. Want to be part of a truly global company?