performance manager

business development manager

software engineer

support specialist

vice president of marketing

TrueCar, Inc.

A typical day at TrueCar is pretty straightforward.  I spent about 60% of my time writing code and 40% managing or involved with process and meetings.

What I learned at TrueCar is to carefully vet the culture and practices of the team you are joining.  I know it sounds simple, but when I first interviewed I was so pleased with the members of the R&D team I would be working with, that I didn't ask the hard questions.  The problem is TrueCar has n incredible amount of technical debt, and a brutal engineering culture.  The churn is high.  The location is fantastic, the compensation and benefits are very attractive.  TrueCar taught me to look beyond the superficial to really understand the dynamics of the culture.

The hardest part of the job is the changing product roadmap, its relatively hard to see projects through to completion because the the product roadmap changes faster than things can be built, like every few weeks a new major initiative replaces an old one.

The best part of the job was the creative freedom to design high performance Java recommendation engines alongside the R&D team.

TrueCar is an agile-development focused company with a significant first-mover advantage in negotiated automotive lead solutions.  The company compensates its employees quite well and prides itself on its "above normal" compensation package.

However, the company is fairly siloed, with promotions and significant responsibilities given primarily to long-term friends of the senior management.  There is very little advancement, promotions, or raises for the majority of the technical staff with a significant amount of churn.

The culture can be very isolating at times with entire divisions taking the blame for mid- and upper-management decisions.

If you find yourself in a well-loved team, however, your TrueCar experience will be great.  Many well-positioned employees remain at the company for 5-10 years or more.  However, beware of the 2-3 year layoff cycles and wholesale reorganizations.

Most of the engineers are top notch. These are the kind of guys that get tons of headhunting offers, yet they choose to stay here. - Solid CI/CD pipeline - Test engineers can actually code and their automated tests are good - 2019 is going to be an exciting year for new products. - There is a culture of creative problem solving and sharing of ideas. Everyone seems to welcome new ideas and if people agree on it, we actually begin work very quickly. - We realize the talent we have here and take good care of them with lunches, events, and bonuses. - As everyone else points out, the office location rocks.

Extreme micromanagement, worked from 9am to often 3am after getting home from work, was not appreciated nor praised for any of my work, despite all my partners having great relationships and positive feedback for me consistently. Some sexist comments made to me. Constant scolding for what I perceived to be going above and beyond - but due to serious control issues on behalf of my manager, my actions in doing so were not recognized as positive. Lack of growth opportunity. Quick turnover due to poor culture. Provided free lunch once a week and had a nice office and a fully stocked kitchen for staff, but I would not recommend working here.

I’ve loved my time at TrueCar so far. The PEOPLE are what truly set it apart. Everyone is genuine, supportive, and talented from top to bottom. The culture is collaborative and supportive, the benefits are great, and the work-life balance is solid. It’s a place where you feel motivated to do your best work and hope to make it a long and impactful career. I’ve made some amazing connections here so far and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a positive, high-energy work environment. 10/10 experience so far!! Love TC

The message from upper management doesn't match the behavior of mid-management.  There was no work-life balance and the expectations became unreasonable as the pay decreased.  Over the last year, the new business philosophies have resulted in high turnover and unengaged employees.   The culture changed so dramatically it makes me wonder if the Exec Team truly knows what is being felt in the field.

The travel is awful and exhausting.   You are expected to cover about 3000+ miles per month in dealer visits or live in hotels.   It is not conducive to people with families and commitments.

The ship is sinking, the holes that were smirnoff, the inner circle and supporting crew are all gone. However the ever lasting damage to the product organization is still there. The ship cant recover from all of the politics, backstabbing and general directionless vision of the org, 

If you want to rest and vest, this is the place to be. You wont learn anything new, things take forever to get cleared and built.. but hey, work life balance is pretty great. No, you wont get a promo, no, you wont get a raise usually. 

Avoid if you want to grow, come if you want to be status quo

Typical day is extremely busy doing account maintenance
I learned Car Dealership overall sales operations
Management was not very helpful or insightful to promote growth
My co-workers were all very pleasant to work with making it fun.
Hardest part of the job is to constantly wait for someone else to finish doing their job for me to finish mine.  At some point I have decided to do everything myself which can be overwhelming at times.  
I enjoyed learning every aspect of the processes for every department and had great ideas to improve them.

The hardest part of the job was finding interest in my work. I learned a lot about AR in the accounting field which helped prepare me for my next job as a bookkeeper. The most enjoyable part was the company events, like free ice cream after quarter end, health and wellness week, company retreats, free grubhub meals each week, and all the snacks and sodas you can think of right there in the kitchen not to mention popcorn machine, kombucha keg on tap, Italian espresso maker, and specialty K-cup coffee brewing machine.

I've been with TrueCar over 3 years and their overall compensation and benefits are really good, but their not good at managing their talent, let alone their corporate strategy.  It's been a lot of up and downs, which makes it difficult to find a groove here, but some may find it exciting as things are always changing.  Don't expect much reward working here unless you're in 'the club'.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Performance manager 9 salaries reported	$110,000 per year
Business development manager 8 salaries reported	$147,969 per year
Software engineer 1 salary reported	$164,500 per year
Support specialist 1 salary reported	$23.50 per hour
Vice president of marketing 1 salary reported	$242,500 per year

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