Don't Bother if You're an Engineer - Senior Software Engineer Catalytic Employee Review

We are always sad to hear someone didn’t have a solid experience with us and accept negative feedback as an opportunity to improve. At Catalytic, we are completely transparent about stock options (and pretty much everything else); we hold public Q&A sessions and encourage employees to ask questions - including anonymously - and be vocal about concerns regarding any company policy, including options. We do not bury anything in “fine print.” Stock options are not guaranteed unless you remain an employee of Catalytic. The purpose of a stock option is to incentivize employees to remain at Catalytic. If an employee elects to leave or is terminated, Catalytic reserves the option to repurchase exercised shares. The repurchase price is based on the fair market value of the option at the time of termination, so the employee is compensated for any increase in value realized during his/her tenure. Having this flexibility enables us to reallocate stock options to new employees. We encourage you to discuss this issue further with us if you are considering employment with Catalytic. With respect to unlimited PTO, the co-founders (CEO and CTO) encourage and support downtime to recharge. We are a start-up so PTO of a week or more should be coordinated in advance, be reasonable (taking two months off a few times per year is not reasonable) and is subject to interruption by a phone call or e-mail if necessary - “necessary” as defined by Merriam-Webster. If you get your ducks in a row before you go, you should be able to get the rest & relaxation you deserve. To be frank, technology can always be better and Catalytic is not perfect. We use Slack and have a public Slack channel dedicated to triage/bug reporting with awards going to the people reporting the most bugs; raising issues is encouraged. We promote those who work hard and, in fact, most of our leaders are also our biggest critics - the key differentiator is identifying solutions along with issues. Good advice for everyone: ensure you are satisfied with your salary prior to accepting employment with any company. If we make an offer that is not fair, tell us - the last thing we want is a dissatisfied employee on day 1. Employees leave jobs for a variety of reasons; Catalytic is a demanding environment that will push you to be your very best. Anything less than your best is a disservice to the person sitting next to you as well as the clients relying on you to deliver.