Revolut is a relatively big company, so things may be different for different teams.
Some thoughts:
- Agressive culture from the top. Working extra hours is almost a norm (which wasn't a big issue for me). The COO calls out individuals publicly in large meetings and puts them on the spot for even a small change in due-date. In many cases, the individual may not even have committed to that due date and the due-date was just assumed by management.
- Leaders don't have people management skills. They use the term 'crack the whip' to describe some of the work they have to do.
- Engineers are seldom involved in solution design because solution design often happens in meetings with senior leaders where engineers are not invited to. This results in a frustrating process.
- Product Ownership here is a lot about tactical project management that relies on the traditional 'business requirements' concept, rather than discovery-led product management that uses design-thinking to build better products.
- Day-to-day involves putting out operational fires (at least once a week to every other day). This is very distracting from the work you want to do. This is because 'you own the product' and so you own the fire as well. If you don't put out the fires, it'll trigger risk indicators that may lead to you being fired.
- There is an emphasis on quantifying everything, even if it comes at the cost of productivity, morale, or peace of mind.
- Employee turnover is quite high, but never have I heard any senior leaders or execs asking for any feedback on how they could be better or what can be done differently.
- There are a few more but the above are the more important ones I feel.