The smaller cons of working at Duo included
- huge pushbacks in changing design patterns, often using the "it's too hard for people to switch/learn" excuse even for simple changes, which I don't agree with
- dated technology internally (it's getting better)
- some small amounts of security theater, like a hard lockdown on slack integrations/webhooks and productivity tools
- now they only do annual review cycles
- when I left, I pushed my new start date off 3 weeks to get stock on the day I was told they would be deposited, but they were mistaken and I missed out on ~5k in stock. Still pretty salty about that one.
Now, the big one that was the deal breaker for me...
TLDR: If you have the ambition and aptitude to move quickly in your career, Duo is not the place for you. I was given excuses multiple times that never lined up and this was the ultimate reason for me leaving.
I waited a month after I left to write this review as I didn't leave under the best circumstances, and wanted to make sure my thoughts/feelings were valid. As I mentioned in the Pros, it's a stable place to work. However, you have to be pretty content with where you're at in your career to stay at Duo for a long period. Most of the recent departures that I had heard of were all due to lack of recognition/promotion (including mine).
To give a bit more context, I was hired in as a Software Engineer II. From early on, I was told I probably should have been hired at level III, since Duo was still operating under the "higher low and promote quick if needed" mentality of a startup. The acquisition made this difficult. When it came time for the "focal" review period, I was told I was hired too soon to get a promotion. The next year, I was told there was no budget. My manager was great and sought out an open position internally at SEIII, which I applied for and was hired onto that team. I didn't want to move teams necessarily, but that's what it took to get the promotion, so I did it.
Now later on, I was going for the SE IV (senior) position. After doing a gap analysis on what they expect a IV to achieve and showing I was ready, I was told it was too close to my last promotion. I did some digging and found there was no rule about that, to which management replied there was no budget. A month later, Duo had it's largest cycle of promotions yet. And on confrontation about that, management told me it was because I lacked the technical expertise for an SE IV, even though I had done a gap analysis and was being sought out in several areas for expertise.
All that said, the biggest con of working at Duo is the difficulty in moving up. Recognition is not well managed and is often results in losing employees.
