A company of low-skilled people looking to have a good time - Manager ML engineering Rakuten Kobo Employee Review

The problem with this company is that it often feels like a cult. People seem to be completely fine or completely oblivious to the fact that none of the work being done in any of the groups (marketing, product, data (esp. data!), etc...) are of any importance. You have a lot of low-skilled people in the company which consists of people that have either been repeatedly fired / quit other companies or people that couldn't get jobs anywhere else and end up here at Kobo. Smart people who have joined Kobo usually leave within a year or less than that realizing what it is. But they will do things like parties and external events, and work from home, and free snacks and drinks in the office so people waste years and years there doing nothing but somehow are okay with these things. The other problem is that if you hang around Kobo too long, it will taint your skillset and it will be very hard to get a job at a better place. They are all day running old technologies and old ideas and leadership has no idea what they are doing in this field so they are constantly behind other companies or taking months to solve something that should take a few hours. My biggest annoyance is that promotions and salary are determined by how much the upper management "likes you" and how much you suck up to everyone there. I would say that NONE of the promotions especially in the past 2-3 years have been deserved, they are all inside inside jobs. Lots of low-skilled and unknowledgeable people throughout this company at all levels (especially the joker CEO who rather spend his time on social media than actually doing any work of significance) that constantly pat themselves on the back. Entire lives can and will be wasted here with nothing to show for it.