Skillful team but plagued by management issues - Backend Engineer Backlight Employee Review

1.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- very skillful team, there was something to learn from any member; - a very high level of kindness, understanding and trust inside the team (with very few exceptions), we formed quite a cohesive group in which any teammate knew the others were very reliable; - bleeding edge (not quite, but close enough) tech stack; - challenging role, always something new to learn / grow into;

Cons

- blurry lines between actual role and job description, sometimes you had to do more than agreed (read: free labor); - certain teammates' egos surfacing a bit too much, manifested as unjustifiable bossiness; - severely understaffed and fully overworked, yet instead of hiring engineers, they hired more managers - adding 0 value, yet they have been letting engineers go on ridiculous grounds (myself included); - HR incompetence is next-level, they fail to deliver on officially promised performance reviews for 2 years straight; - following last year's massive departures, when a number of senior members / managers left at the same time, management quality went abysmally low, there have been no more KPIs, no more OKRs, they stopped caring about measuring work results at all - probably because the current managers have got no idea how to do it in the first place - all they seem to care about nowadays is useless meetings and how to cram more people in an already crowded office;

Explore other reviews about Backlight

5.0
Apr 24, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible time off. Good people.

Cons

Deal with standard start up struggles.

3.0
Jan 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You can carve out your own niche and find your role.

Cons

If you're looking for mature leadership with a strong direction for the business and product, you won't find it here. Relying on inexperience and yes-men to move forward instead of making educated decisions.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All