software engineer

senior software engineer

program manager

account executive

software engineer intern

Stripe

I wish I knew before starting is that when you join Stripe you are sacrificing your mental and emotional well-being for a high salary. Here are just a few things you can expect at Stripe:

1. Forced stack-ranking. They say it's not "forced" but any manager knows that this is not true. Even if you're part of a high-performing team, if you did one thing that wasn't as stellar as the superstars you work with, you're going to get a rating that limits your career opportunities and sets you on a path for being moved out of the company. This system favors employees throwing their peers under the bus to increase their chances of being higher up in the stack-rank. It also means that the projects/work you are doing immediately before your performance is evaluated are critical for staying employed.

2. False urgency. Every ask, no matter how small, needs to be addressed immediately. If you try to balance your work, or ask for extra time to complete a non-urgent task, you'll be met with resentment. One time I was out sick, I was messaged 8 times by 3 different people asking for data that they could pull themselves and wasn't needed for another three weeks. This sort of behavior happens constantly and I know several Stripe employees who have chosen not to go on their honeymoons or take vacations simply because they feel like they need to always be available.  If the wrong person doesn't hear from you immediately, they will complain and your job will be at risk. You'll hear people at the company say that you can create balance for yourself, but it's all talk. One of the company's main values is to move fast and this applies to literally everything. Even if that means working until midnight on your birthday to make sure everything is addressed before morning. 

3. Non-existent work/life balance. I've seen this issue consistently in every single role I've interacted with at the company. In my position, I work every day from 6:30 AM until 10 PM during the week and at least 5-10 hours on Saturday and Sunday. I've seen parents who never get time to spend with their children and who had to watch their kids cry when they explained they won't be able to celebrate their birthdays or attend their graduations. If you have any hopes of having a personal life (even if that means just having a nightly dinner with your partner), I encourage you to reset your expectations. I've worked so many hours for this position that I hit a point where I literally forgot my own personality and hobbies. I'm a hard worker and have been employed by startups before, but I've never needed medical care to heal from work until I started at Stripe. 

4. Lack of trust. To illustrate, I don't even feel comfortable sharing what my role or team is in this review out of fear that they will speculate and try to fire me. I know people who've been with Stripe for 6+ years and have told me they show up to work literally every day wondering if it'll be the day they get fired. And it's not an unreasonable concern given the rate Stripe moves people out the door for the littlest missteps. If you are not performing well above average in every quarter, even if there aren't metrics to measure performance in your role, you are going to have a conversation about Stripe not being a good fit for you. 

I know Stripe is a good place for some people. But if you received an offer, please take the time to think about what you need out of a company vs. what you are willing to sacrifice. I wish the recruiters and interviewers were more honest about what this company requires of its employees, but they're more interested in selling you on signing your offer letter. Do yourself a favor and do some research first so you can make an educated decision.


As a contractor working for this client, my experience has been marked by a number of significant challenges that have impacted the overall quality of my work engagement. One of the most glaring issues has been the apparent lack of structure and stability within the client's organization. It often feels as though there is a lack of clear direction and well-defined processes, making it difficult to navigate tasks efficiently and deliver optimal results. 

Furthermore, the client's expectations from contracted employees have been vague and inconsistent. This lack of clarity on what is expected of us makes it challenging to align our efforts with the client's goals and deliver outcomes that meet their needs. This ambiguity not only hampers our productivity but also breeds a sense of frustration and uncertainty among the contractors. 

Another concerning aspect is the apparent favoritism displayed within the client's interactions with contractors. It has been observed that certain individuals receive preferential treatment, which can lead to a sense of inequality and hinder a fair and equitable work environment. A level playing field is crucial for maintaining team morale and ensuring that all contractors have an equal opportunity to contribute and excel. 

Communication, or the lack thereof, has also been a notable hurdle in this contract engagement. Effective communication is the cornerstone of successful collaboration, yet there have been instances where communication breakdowns have hindered progress and caused unnecessary misunderstandings. Timely and transparent communication is essential for contractors to feel informed and engaged in the client's projects. 
In conclusion, my time as a contractor for this client has been marked by challenges stemming from a lack of structure, clarity, communication, and fair treatment. Addressing these issues is pivotal for creating a more conducive and productive environment for both contracted employees and the client's projects as a whole. Establishing clear expectations, fostering open communication, and ensuring an equitable approach will contribute to a more positive and successful contractor-client relationship.


If you're considering working here, be prepared for a deeply toxic culture masked by surface-level perks. Management is disengaged, unaccountable, and often indifferent to employee well-being or performance standards. Instead of leadership, you'll find lazy managers who delegate without direction, avoid responsibility, and reward favoritism over merit. Constructive feedback is ignored, and initiatives to improve the work environment are quickly shut down or forgotten. Colleagues are often left unsupported and burned out, while leadership maintains a comfortable distance from the dysfunction they've helped create. Innovation, growth, and collaboration are replaced with micromanagement, blame games, and a general atmosphere of distrust. Don’t be misled by flashy branding or vague promises during the hiring process — the reality is a disorganized, demoralizing workplace where your skills and motivation will likely go to waste. Proceed with caution or, better yet, look elsewhere.

Stripe has been a rewarding place to work as a Senior Full Stack Developer. A typical day involves solving challenging problems across both the backend and frontend — especially within the payments domain. I’ve worked with technologies like Node.js, React, TypeScript, PostgreSQL, and AWS.

The engineering culture encourages ownership, clean code, and cross-functional collaboration. I’ve learned a lot about scaling secure APIs, CI/CD pipelines, and writing production-grade systems that handle global traffic. The leadership team is accessible and focused on delivering real value. The work is fast-paced, but the impact is clear.

- Bad WLB: You're expected to conduct about 2-3 interviews per week on top of all other meetings, on top of actual work.
- Write a one-pager for how to write a one-pager, and another one-pager following up on why the first one-pager was designed that way!
- Nobody updates the docs, just writes more docs and the pile of stale docs just grows.
- Monorepo is awful... and it's in Ruby, but like, badly coded Ruby. Think: I want to do something different.... let's just copy and paste the file and change the behaviour on that new file... that bad.
- Tooling is great, and people are really smart.
- You're expected to ramp-up and be productive in 3 weeks.

Toxic culture of management constantly forcing a more extreme workload with no respect for your personal time. Constant after hours calls and endless carrot dangling with no actual reward. Managers who go completely against written and published company policy and treat you like a disposable piece of machinery. 
The only enjoyable part of the job was the paycheck, which in hindsight was not worth it. 

It was okay working for Stripe. Stripe could be really stressful at times. I feel like it was all about numbers. Being employed there was like wondering if you would have a job the next day, all because you can do your best. Yet, it feels like your hard work was not good enough. My manager was amazing, and she will fight for you all the way if you are doing what you suppose to be doing. Stripe is only a job that you can see yourself there short term, never long term unless you are selected to move up in the company, which is hardly.

Overpaid leaders who delegate to lower-paid staff with a lackluster strategy. 

They give these directors a big budget only to squander it and when it's time to cut their losses they lay off the people that were underpaid and overworked to activate an annual goal with no strategy in the first place. They wasted a whole year- time and recourses then blamed the little guy. Laying off people every 3 months since last year. Blame the top leaders. 

I did not feel comfortable working at Stripe. Possibly because of the EXTREME lack of diversity, women in prominent positions and the white male dominated structure that existed. I was often stared at walking around the office and people were unfriendly and not welcoming. The perks were the free meals but all in all, the perks were not worth the disadvantages of being a person of color in an unwelcoming environment.

This was hands down the best job that I have ever held. The benefits were cheap, I was compensated well, and the people were really smart. I hate that I was impacted by the layoffs after less than a year in 2022, I would have been there for the long haul. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Software engineer 33 salaries reported	$192,149 per year
Senior software engineer 10 salaries reported	$213,500 per year
Program manager 16 salaries reported	$166,063 per year
Account executive 7 salaries reported	$143,571 per year
Software engineer intern 3 salaries reported	$59.67 per hour

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