4 ms·

City mapper is used extensively in London, it’s really really good. They are/where expanding into some form of Citymapper busses which is really interesting. I

by orf 7y ago

City mapper is used extensively in London, it’s really really good. They are/where expanding into some form of Citymapper busses which is really interesting. I had the chance to interview there, but I was put off by the absolutely terrible Glassdoor reviews[1] including consistent reports about the CEO and the internal culture. Given that, I’m not too hopeful about the future of Citymapper. Right now they have a head start on others, but I don’t see anything to justify the 300 million pound valuation. 1. https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Citymapper-Reviews-E1030688.htm https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Citymapper-Reviews-E1030...

blowski 7y ago
> I was put off by the absolutely terrible Glassdoor reviews[1] including consistent reports about the CEO and the internal culture I'm genuinely surprised by that. I knew a couple of people who worked there, and both said they loved working there.
- zaphod4prez 7y ago
  Same, I know someone who worked there early on and they speak highly of the company & the culture
stereobit 7y ago
I had the same experience years ago.
jasoncartwright 7y ago
Gosh, do people rely on Glassdoor? To turn down an interview? From my experience it's an outlet for people with a personal gripe and far from a good source of internal information about a company.
- hluska 7y ago
  Yes, people do rely on Glassdoor. I am one of them. I only pay attention to the cons listed in positive reviews. Doing that has saved me from a couple of truly awful environments.
  - jasoncartwright 7y ago
    > I only pay attention to the cons listed in positive review An interesting technique
- lozenge 7y ago
  I would only eliminate the bottom 25% of companies based on Glassdoor, but yes it is worthwhile. Take a look at theirs, it's probably the worst you've seen. If there is no way for them to reassure you you aren't signing up to a toxic work environment then why interview. I wish I had turned down the interview. Did an excessive take home for them and received no reply. Two months later they apologised and sent some feedback. They explained the relevant person was on holiday. (Considering the size of their office at the time they should have been using an applicant tracking system and have a plan for somebody going on holiday. They had many dozens of engineers at that point.) That was years ago though so no longer relevant, and I learned to push back on take homes. Edit: at the time Glassdoor was full of complaints interviewees were assigned to research a city and build a playbook on entering the market there. After the interview grilling they suspected there was not actually a role and they had been used for free labor. Not acceptable behaviour either.
EmilLondon 7y ago
I work at Citymapper as a software engineer, and I know from my own personal experience that Glassdoor doesn't reflect our culture. We have a smart and passionate team. Everyone is supportive of each other, and you will learn a lot every day. There's an abundance of interesting problems around and everyone is passionate about building a great product. Anyone thinking of applying and is concerned about this, please contact me: emil at citymapper and I can share my experiences.
- orf 7y ago
  Are you saying that the people on Glassdoor, and even here on hacker news, are lying about the way the CEO acts?
- ACow_Adonis 7y ago
  I was going to make a comment about how your response sounded either like marketing, AI-generated-text, or a HR department trying to recruit rather than an actual human being or software engineer, because you didn't actually say anything material while giving a lot of tech-recruiting catch phrases. So I clicked on your account and looked at your past comment history... yikes... Maybe you're an just an engineer that only posts about recruitment for Citymapper? (PS: just subjectively, it looks to me like the positive glassdoor reviews also look suspicious). (Obviously) I haven't worked three, but my spidey senses aren't exactly giving off a good vibe here...
  - brun 7y ago
    Referral bonuses FTW
  - wilandbo 7y ago
    > So I clicked on your account and looked at your past comment history... yikes... Good catch. His comments can be ignored based on his comment history.
  - dang 7y ago
    This crosses into personal attack. EmilLondon did nothing wrong. Posting jobs to Who Is Hiring threads, in particular, is a service to the community. We don't allow users to hound other users because of where they work. Please see https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20disincent&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... and make your substantive points without that in the future.
i_love_limes 7y ago
I actually did interview there maybe 3 years ago. Did the take home test and was invited in for the multiple interviews. I asked about the Glassdoor reviews and they more or less admitted that is was a 'demanding' environment, much more than my current employer at the time, which was Amazon, if that doesn't say enough
ulfw 7y ago
Glassdoor is about the crappiest website I’ve seen. Requires a different login for each of it’s 100 country domains it has. Never seen anyone do it that unprofessionally. My .com login isn’t accept on .co.uk and when I reload the page it goes to .hk where I currently am and my login isn’t accepted there either.

by orf 7y ago

blowski 7y ago

> I was put off by the absolutely terrible Glassdoor reviews[1] including consistent reports about the CEO and the internal culture I'm genuinely surprised by that. I knew a couple of people who worked there, and both said they loved working there.

zaphod4prez 7y ago
Same, I know someone who worked there early on and they speak highly of the company & the culture

stereobit 7y ago

I had the same experience years ago.

jasoncartwright 7y ago

Gosh, do people rely on Glassdoor? To turn down an interview? From my experience it's an outlet for people with a personal gripe and far from a good source of internal information about a company.

hluska 7y ago
Yes, people do rely on Glassdoor. I am one of them. I only pay attention to the cons listed in positive reviews. Doing that has saved me from a couple of truly awful environments.
- jasoncartwright 7y ago
  > I only pay attention to the cons listed in positive review An interesting technique
lozenge 7y ago
I would only eliminate the bottom 25% of companies based on Glassdoor, but yes it is worthwhile. Take a look at theirs, it's probably the worst you've seen. If there is no way for them to reassure you you aren't signing up to a toxic work environment then why interview. I wish I had turned down the interview. Did an excessive take home for them and received no reply. Two months later they apologised and sent some feedback. They explained the relevant person was on holiday. (Considering the size of their office at the time they should have been using an applicant tracking system and have a plan for somebody going on holiday. They had many dozens of engineers at that point.) That was years ago though so no longer relevant, and I learned to push back on take homes. Edit: at the time Glassdoor was full of complaints interviewees were assigned to research a city and build a playbook on entering the market there. After the interview grilling they suspected there was not actually a role and they had been used for free labor. Not acceptable behaviour either.

EmilLondon 7y ago

I work at Citymapper as a software engineer, and I know from my own personal experience that Glassdoor doesn't reflect our culture. We have a smart and passionate team. Everyone is supportive of each other, and you will learn a lot every day. There's an abundance of interesting problems around and everyone is passionate about building a great product. Anyone thinking of applying and is concerned about this, please contact me: emil at citymapper and I can share my experiences.

orf 7y ago
Are you saying that the people on Glassdoor, and even here on hacker news, are lying about the way the CEO acts?
ACow_Adonis 7y ago
I was going to make a comment about how your response sounded either like marketing, AI-generated-text, or a HR department trying to recruit rather than an actual human being or software engineer, because you didn't actually say anything material while giving a lot of tech-recruiting catch phrases. So I clicked on your account and looked at your past comment history... yikes... Maybe you're an just an engineer that only posts about recruitment for Citymapper? (PS: just subjectively, it looks to me like the positive glassdoor reviews also look suspicious). (Obviously) I haven't worked three, but my spidey senses aren't exactly giving off a good vibe here...
- brun 7y ago
  Referral bonuses FTW
- wilandbo 7y ago
  > So I clicked on your account and looked at your past comment history... yikes... Good catch. His comments can be ignored based on his comment history.
- dang 7y ago
  This crosses into personal attack. EmilLondon did nothing wrong. Posting jobs to Who Is Hiring threads, in particular, is a service to the community. We don't allow users to hound other users because of where they work. Please see https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20disincent&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... and make your substantive points without that in the future.

i_love_limes 7y ago

I actually did interview there maybe 3 years ago. Did the take home test and was invited in for the multiple interviews. I asked about the Glassdoor reviews and they more or less admitted that is was a 'demanding' environment, much more than my current employer at the time, which was Amazon, if that doesn't say enough

ulfw 7y ago

Glassdoor is about the crappiest website I’ve seen. Requires a different login for each of it’s 100 country domains it has. Never seen anyone do it that unprofessionally. My .com login isn’t accept on .co.uk and when I reload the page it goes to .hk where I currently am and my login isn’t accepted there either.