Excellent Place to Work - Portfolio Manager Build Asset Management Employee Review

- very smart people that know what they're doing and care about the future of the company and the success of their employees - managers are very organized and care a lot about a successful onboarding process (unlike some other start-up experiences I've had) - many company processes and values modeled after Amazon practices, but culture only borrows from the good parts of Amazon culture--work-life balance is not only possible but encouraged - as a startup, Build employees have lots of opportunity to grow and impact the company; challenging the status-quo is encouraged, and there are no archaic practices you have to accept/follow - fantastic base pay and totally reasonable benefits, including flexible time off and decent health insurance (recently added dental and vision options)

Build may not be for you if you prefer: - large, highly structured companies - tightly defined roles that never require you to work on or pay attention to something outside the scope of your original job description - traditional companies/industries that aren't dynamic - companies with huge benefits packages or stock options (these are all pros rather than cons for me)

I'm an executive at Build so my review is naturally biased. However, I want to provide candid pros and cons for prospective job candidates. Pros: * Work on a big challenge in the financial services space; namely creating financial products that seek better risk-management characteristics for retirement savers * Diverse employee base from different industries and personal backgrounds * Friendly, fun, and collaborative culture * True "day 1" mentality of a small start-up; not a lot of red tape * All employees should see direct impact of their work on company success * We try as hard as we can to accept new ideas from all corners of the business

Life at a start-up is not the same as working for a large company. If you are more comfortable working in a large organization with a multi-year roadmap set in stone, Build may not be the right fit for you. Cons: * Incumbency bias (track record, AUM, fee pressure) in the financial services industry makes selling a new product very difficult * High ambiguity on most problems; we demand high "figure-it-out" abilities * Rapid iteration and strategy pivots can be uncomfortable * Many of our tech and operational systems are still very early in development; many things are not "push-button" easy