Avantages
You get to be at the forefront of financial technology, not just for Canada, but globally. They are very innovative, move fast, and care about their clients deeply. The products are solid, and the people are talented, smart, and warm. Katchen in particular is a big motivating factor to stay as he embodies a true leader.
Inconvénients
There been a few recent changes that have caused some concern.
First, they’ve made some decisions that feel antithetical to their mission of financial freedom and value of “be human”.
1. They are launching a prediction product, which is like gambling, and could put people in significant debt.
2. They launched a partnership with X to drive trading growth. Considering Musk’s views, especially about Canada, this almost feels like a slap in the face to many Canadians.
Second, they recently expanded on their culture manual. While most of it was fantastic, providing prescriptive instructions on how to live values, some things did cause alarm.
1. They are expecting people to work flex hours, into the night and on the weekends, especially in management positions. This feels contradictory to their value of Be Human, which does and should include their employees.
2. They expect people to not focus on title/level, while also continuing to prescribe to a very traditional hierarchical organization structure. That, combined with the lack of bonuses, low salary bands compared to other tech companies, and low merit increases even for top performers, creates a system where people are only really rewarded based on title/level promotions. Telling people to not care about title in this situation and to work late nights/weekends feels out of touch and frankly, inhuman, especially given the rising cost of living.