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I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professional

by nbulka 7y ago

I applied for an Engineering role at Gitlab. I didn't make it past the initial interview screening and politely asked for feedback in order to grow professionally. I never heard back from the recruiter or company after that yet their handbook says: "If the candidate asks for further feedback, only offer frank feedback. This is hard, but it is part of our company values." I always wondered if it was because I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do.

MediumD 7y ago
My guess would be that it's very easy to write down a value, but much harder to actually practice that value consistently.
- GitLabWatchDog 7y ago
  Ding! Ding! Ding! You hit the nail on the hammer. They write it all down but do you really think anyone actually reads or follows the handbook? It has to be thousands of pages long! It is all for show so they can write blogs about it and try to impress the public with their so called “radical transparency.” It is obvious by all the recent news articles and information leaking out from current and past employees that it is just a facade. It won’t be long until they are fully exposed and we see they are just another greedy startup like WeWork or Away with some crazy CEO putting on a show for the public while putting fear into the employees.
dvtrn 7y ago
I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do Interesting, there was a moment maybe a year and a half ago where I wanted to work for Gitlab, but upon learning precisely this I changed my mind. Not necessarily just that pay was location based, but reading through the Global Compensation page just felt very...I dunno, cold and dispassionate? There's probably a better way to phrase the sensation, because I'm certain this wasn't their intent, but the right descriptor eludes me presently.
- gherkinnn 7y ago
  I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.
  - dvtrn 7y ago
    For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn't represented, it's not an option on the list. Neither was the city one county over, a city with a much more productive local economy. In fact, they don't even list the state Capitol, home to a pretty good business school and several engineering schools in the state. The nearest metro area that I could select to even calculate a potential salary is three hours away, separated by a state line with a completely different state tax rate than where I plan to reside. It gets more complicated. The cost of living where I'd like to buy a house is objectively less than this city three hours away, separated by a state line. I know Gitlabbers love to comment and clarify things, so if one of you are reading this I'm curious to know how your salary sabermetrics adjust for this. Then there's the fact that my significant other plan to start a family. If I buy a house in hometown, and I'm paid a lower salary than city three hours away, what's the discussion like if I get hired and two years later I have a child? That's not covered in the Compensation Handbook (if this is mentioned elsewhere in the handbook and I merely missed it, my apologies, I'll redact this complaint). Relocating requires involving a "written agreement" from my manager, and a recalculation of my salary. On the one hand, it's VERY helpful I think to have all this laid out before applying, it's a level of transparency that more companies could stand to emulate, even while I'd say maybe don't emulate every practice employed by Gitlab...but the implementation of various policies just feel robotic, impersonal and quite rigid. Again, I'll take full ownership of my words here if I've missed, or completely misread and misinterpreted aspects of this all, and I completely understand it's within Gitlab's prerogative to structure their company in a way that attracts the types of people for whom these things aren't considerations for their next job. It's just a shame for me personally, because I really like the product and really wanted to be part of solving some of the technical challenges their tools solve, having been a pretty vocal proponent of them in my current dev team.
tomcam 7y ago
To me offering feedback is an unnecessary attack vector for lawsuits.
- __blockcipher__ 7y ago
  This is always the excuse given, and it seems to me to be just that - an excuse.
- johannes1234321 7y ago
  That's a reason why many people don't provide it. However GutLab, in their handbook, states > the hiring manager should be prepared to let the candidate know why they were declined if they had progressed to the team or manager interviews. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/#rejecting-candidates https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/#rejec... In the case of the GP the interviewer apparently wasn't up to that. As I haven't interacted with them in any way I can't judge in any way further.
  - Polylactic_acid 7y ago
    I have applied twice and got given feedback both times.
__blockcipher__ 7y ago
I applied for a position (Backend Engineer in Search) that I felt I was a great fit for. I was rejected without even a phone screen. I am very early in my career, so I’d bet whoever handles the leftmost phase of the hiring pipeline saw that and basically immediately binned my resume. But I was still pretty bummed. Since Gitlab’s development is out in the open I could see the tickets in the team’s backlog and knew that I would be able to work them. In my cover letter, I said that I wanted to help them architect and scale global code search for the gitlab.com instance. Anyway, that’s a reality of applying for a job without a referral and so I’m not bitter about it. But man, I was so impressed with the notions espoused in Gitlab’s handbook. Principles like being a global optimizer and prioritizing unblocking others fit my natural working style very well. In fact, I’d used that exact terminology (global optimizer) to describe myself to my manager at my previous job. Anyway, it would have been a great opportunity. And the position I’d applied for had been open for so long that I’d hoped they really wanted to fill the position. Since I didn’t even make it to the screen, I didn’t expect any feedback, and naturally didn’t receive any.
- sdesol 7y ago
  I've read they don't hire junior people, which might explain why you haven't heard anything. As somebody that has written a search engine, I would suggest you implement one and make it accessible to overcome the junior title...if that is the case in your situation.
  - scaryclam 7y ago
    Blanket rejection of juniors is pretty short sighted. Not offering any rejection at all is even worse. If you're not hiring juniors, say so. If you're not hiring juniors and one applies, send a polite response to say "Oh hey, thanks but we're after more senior people, but please try again in a year or so!". There's no good reason for a non-response, and when it's in their handbook and they still don't do it, a big red flag for other candidates.
    - wyclif 7y ago
      Agreed, but isn't the point of labelling an open position 'junior' or 'senior' so that candidates will know whether it's appropriate to apply? Everybody surely knows what these terms mean, right? And if it isn't in the job title, then why can't they put it in the job description so they don't get junior experience people applying for senior jobs?
Tade0 7y ago
I applied twice with a year between the two attempts: First time I was rejected after the first interview because they found somebody better suited for the role(my lack of Ruby experience was likely a factor) - that at least was the response I got. Second time I was rejected outright - the reason given was that for people with more than five years of experience, they expected candidates to spend more than two years in a single company.
- dsetaos 7y ago
  Not to be mean but I'm sceptical of CVs like that too. I expect people to stick around for a while. I need to know I can depend on them not to jump ship at the slightest hiccup. Unless they can give me a reasonable explanation for the job hopping I'm not going to take the risk. If I want mercenaries I'll just get some freelancers.
  - tjr225 7y ago
    I'll give this an upvote as someone with a resume/CV that would resemble a job hopper. I am skeptical of people like this(even though I myself could be construed as a job hopper) in interviews. However in some cases its just hustle. I've gone from state government -> retail -> cloud automation. Every step of the way was a 50% raise. I can't turn those raises down and the previous employers simply didn't have the budget to counter offer...
  - ThePadawan 7y ago
    Full disclosure: I have a very patchwork CV. I think it's disingenuous to put "the slightest hiccup" and "<2 years" in the same bucket. Even counting a 6 months warm-up phase, it becomes very clear from interactions with your managers, customers and HR, if a job works out for you. Let's say you put out a plan for your professional development within the first year at a new job, and you point out within 6/9/12 months that you are instead put on dead-end projects, working on unchallenging problems that don't reflect your career interests - that's not going to change after 2 more years in that job.
  - a_imho 7y ago
    Unless they can give me a reasonable explanation for the job hopping I'm not going to take the risk. The current place was not going to match the salary offered at the next place. Is this reasonable enough? Why do you think people change jobs in the first place? Your approach sends a signal you are hiring people who just want to coast and/or not aware of their market value. Which is also fine, I guess.
ljm 7y ago
I also applied, but I also got good feedback. The problem was that they wanted me to refactor their permission layer as part of the interview and submit it as a contribution when it was done. I abandoned it because the merge conflicts came in faster than the feedback and while i surely fucked up on my part, so did Gitlab. They wanted the contribution and the ability to say no. In retrospect and after the news over the last year I think I dodged a bullet. Of course I dodged into a different one but I don’t wish to engage with Gitlab again.
itake 7y ago
> I always wondered if it was because I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do. I had the exact same experience. Even if you lived in SF, they pay way below market rate. I have sympathy for their engineers that don't have any other options but to take their deal.
nine_k 7y ago
Our company hires a lot. I once asked if we can give people feedback if we don't make an offer, to help them learn. I was told that this leaves more room for a discrimination suit. While the risk is low, the downside in time, money, and bad PR is significant. There's no upside for the company, except feeling good, in giving honest feedback to a candidate, though. So, strictly no feedback. This is why we can't have nice things.
piokoch 7y ago
Nowadays (almost) no one will give you post-interview feedback. The risk of being sued for "discrimination" because of whatever made-up reason is just too high. In the World when more and more people belong to unknown 3 months earlier "oppressed minority" nobody wants to take chances. The funniest story I read the other day on HN was about some company which needed to fire 10% of their employees. After consulting with the lawyers, consulting company they have hired to help in the process they decided to take a contractor, who would not have any knowledge about employees. That contractor's only job was to randomly select 10% of people to fire. Simple, cheap, safe, no risk of being sued, maybe they have fired some people who would be worth to keep (if they really wish they could hire them back anyway). This is the sad World we live in.
- mhd 7y ago
  > In the World when more and more people belong to unknown 3 months earlier "oppressed minority" nobody wants to take chances. Oh come on. What country are you living in where they only managed to catch up with civil rights in the last three months? Last added protected class in the US was 2014, if I recall correctly. Can't we keep those "we live in a society" posts confined to reddit?
- rkangel 7y ago
  > Nowadays (almost) no one will give you post-interview feedback. In Europe, GDPR allows you to ask for your interview notes, and discrimination laws mean that companies need to actually have reasons in them for not hiring you. Given that a GDPR data request is more effort than just providing feedback you usually get some response to the question.
- hobs 7y ago
  This blog claims that that doesn't happen ever and the HR drones are way over committing to risk mitigation. It was on HN a few days back. http://blog.interviewing.io/no-engineer-has-ever-sued-a-company-because-of-constructive-post-interview-feedback-so-why-dont-employers-do-it/ http://blog.interviewing.io/no-engineer-has-ever-sued-a-comp...
Vinnl 7y ago
I applied as well, got rejected, and asked for feedback. I did get it, but it was not very actionable. Then again, the person who provided me the feedback just copied over the notes from the one person who did the interviewing, so this is probably somewhat hit-or-miss too: you just have to be lucky who interviews you. Which is not just the case for getting feedback, but also for getting the job, I suppose.
bchurch 7y ago
We really appreciate all of your feedback about the GitLab interview process — it helps us improve as we continue to grow. Your experience as a candidate is extremely important to our whole team, and I’m sorry to hear that yours wasn’t positive. We do provide feedback to candidates who have passed the first interview stage and met with the team or hiring manager. Our recruiting team is working through more than 10,000 applications per month, so unfortunately it just isn’t scaleable to provide specific feedback for every applicant in earlier stages. You can find more details on the interviewing page of our handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/ Thank you again for pointing out areas where we can continue to get better. We hope you’ll consider GitLab again in the future.
brittany6229 7y ago
Thank you all for taking the time to give us feedback on our handbook and location factors. Why we pay local rates as outlined in the following section: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compensation/#why-we-pay-local-rates https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compen.... We work handbook first at GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbo...) in line with our value of transparency so that each relevant page acts as a reference for company policies and internal operating procedures. In this case, that may mean the community would see how we define location factors, but also how they are calculated by the compensation team. I understand how the latter can feel very operational when reading through. If there is any feedback on how to make certain sections feel less cold, please open an issue in our compensation issue tracker (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issues https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issu...) or tag me in a merge request (@brittanyr). With respect to our location factors not having all cities, this is due to taking a geographical areas approach. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compensation/#geographical-areas https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compen... If there is a city that is 1) not listed or 2) not aligned to local market rates, please feel free to send us an email with this information (compensation@gitlab.com) or open an issue in our compensation issue tracker with the following issue template: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issues/new?issue%5Bassignee_id%5D=&issue%5Bmilestone_id%5D= https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issu....

by nbulka 7y ago

MediumD 7y ago

My guess would be that it's very easy to write down a value, but much harder to actually practice that value consistently.

GitLabWatchDog 7y ago
Ding! Ding! Ding! You hit the nail on the hammer. They write it all down but do you really think anyone actually reads or follows the handbook? It has to be thousands of pages long! It is all for show so they can write blogs about it and try to impress the public with their so called “radical transparency.” It is obvious by all the recent news articles and information leaking out from current and past employees that it is just a facade. It won’t be long until they are fully exposed and we see they are just another greedy startup like WeWork or Away with some crazy CEO putting on a show for the public while putting fear into the employees.

dvtrn 7y ago

I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do Interesting, there was a moment maybe a year and a half ago where I wanted to work for Gitlab, but upon learning precisely this I changed my mind. Not necessarily just that pay was location based, but reading through the Global Compensation page just felt very...I dunno, cold and dispassionate? There's probably a better way to phrase the sensation, because I'm certain this wasn't their intent, but the right descriptor eludes me presently.

gherkinnn 7y ago
I’m fine with the location-based pay. Regarding the handbook though, I feel its entirety is cold and dispassionate. Devoid of anything human.
- dvtrn 7y ago
  For me it's a combination of both, I think? -- BEGIN: BIG ASS WALL OF TEXT -- Submitted for your thoughts: I toyed around with their salary calculator. Selected my job role and what I think is an appropriate guess of my own skill level with the options provided. And then I got stuck. Because the "area" (my hometown in the rural southeast US, an economically depressed former mill town) I'm about to buy a house in isn't represented, it's not an option on the list. Neither was the city one county over, a city with a much more productive local economy. In fact, they don't even list the state Capitol, home to a pretty good business school and several engineering schools in the state. The nearest metro area that I could select to even calculate a potential salary is three hours away, separated by a state line with a completely different state tax rate than where I plan to reside. It gets more complicated. The cost of living where I'd like to buy a house is objectively less than this city three hours away, separated by a state line. I know Gitlabbers love to comment and clarify things, so if one of you are reading this I'm curious to know how your salary sabermetrics adjust for this. Then there's the fact that my significant other plan to start a family. If I buy a house in hometown, and I'm paid a lower salary than city three hours away, what's the discussion like if I get hired and two years later I have a child? That's not covered in the Compensation Handbook (if this is mentioned elsewhere in the handbook and I merely missed it, my apologies, I'll redact this complaint). Relocating requires involving a "written agreement" from my manager, and a recalculation of my salary. On the one hand, it's VERY helpful I think to have all this laid out before applying, it's a level of transparency that more companies could stand to emulate, even while I'd say maybe don't emulate every practice employed by Gitlab...but the implementation of various policies just feel robotic, impersonal and quite rigid. Again, I'll take full ownership of my words here if I've missed, or completely misread and misinterpreted aspects of this all, and I completely understand it's within Gitlab's prerogative to structure their company in a way that attracts the types of people for whom these things aren't considerations for their next job. It's just a shame for me personally, because I really like the product and really wanted to be part of solving some of the technical challenges their tools solve, having been a pretty vocal proponent of them in my current dev team.

tomcam 7y ago

To me offering feedback is an unnecessary attack vector for lawsuits.

__blockcipher__ 7y ago
This is always the excuse given, and it seems to me to be just that - an excuse.
johannes1234321 7y ago
That's a reason why many people don't provide it. However GutLab, in their handbook, states > the hiring manager should be prepared to let the candidate know why they were declined if they had progressed to the team or manager interviews. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/#rejecting-candidates https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/#rejec... In the case of the GP the interviewer apparently wasn't up to that. As I haven't interacted with them in any way I can't judge in any way further.
- Polylactic_acid 7y ago
  I have applied twice and got given feedback both times.

__blockcipher__ 7y ago

I applied for a position (Backend Engineer in Search) that I felt I was a great fit for. I was rejected without even a phone screen. I am very early in my career, so I’d bet whoever handles the leftmost phase of the hiring pipeline saw that and basically immediately binned my resume. But I was still pretty bummed. Since Gitlab’s development is out in the open I could see the tickets in the team’s backlog and knew that I would be able to work them. In my cover letter, I said that I wanted to help them architect and scale global code search for the gitlab.com instance. Anyway, that’s a reality of applying for a job without a referral and so I’m not bitter about it. But man, I was so impressed with the notions espoused in Gitlab’s handbook. Principles like being a global optimizer and prioritizing unblocking others fit my natural working style very well. In fact, I’d used that exact terminology (global optimizer) to describe myself to my manager at my previous job. Anyway, it would have been a great opportunity. And the position I’d applied for had been open for so long that I’d hoped they really wanted to fill the position. Since I didn’t even make it to the screen, I didn’t expect any feedback, and naturally didn’t receive any.

sdesol 7y ago
I've read they don't hire junior people, which might explain why you haven't heard anything. As somebody that has written a search engine, I would suggest you implement one and make it accessible to overcome the junior title...if that is the case in your situation.
- scaryclam 7y ago
  Blanket rejection of juniors is pretty short sighted. Not offering any rejection at all is even worse. If you're not hiring juniors, say so. If you're not hiring juniors and one applies, send a polite response to say "Oh hey, thanks but we're after more senior people, but please try again in a year or so!". There's no good reason for a non-response, and when it's in their handbook and they still don't do it, a big red flag for other candidates.
  - wyclif 7y ago
    Agreed, but isn't the point of labelling an open position 'junior' or 'senior' so that candidates will know whether it's appropriate to apply? Everybody surely knows what these terms mean, right? And if it isn't in the job title, then why can't they put it in the job description so they don't get junior experience people applying for senior jobs?

Tade0 7y ago

I applied twice with a year between the two attempts: First time I was rejected after the first interview because they found somebody better suited for the role(my lack of Ruby experience was likely a factor) - that at least was the response I got. Second time I was rejected outright - the reason given was that for people with more than five years of experience, they expected candidates to spend more than two years in a single company.

dsetaos 7y ago
Not to be mean but I'm sceptical of CVs like that too. I expect people to stick around for a while. I need to know I can depend on them not to jump ship at the slightest hiccup. Unless they can give me a reasonable explanation for the job hopping I'm not going to take the risk. If I want mercenaries I'll just get some freelancers.
- tjr225 7y ago
  I'll give this an upvote as someone with a resume/CV that would resemble a job hopper. I am skeptical of people like this(even though I myself could be construed as a job hopper) in interviews. However in some cases its just hustle. I've gone from state government -> retail -> cloud automation. Every step of the way was a 50% raise. I can't turn those raises down and the previous employers simply didn't have the budget to counter offer...
- ThePadawan 7y ago
  Full disclosure: I have a very patchwork CV. I think it's disingenuous to put "the slightest hiccup" and "<2 years" in the same bucket. Even counting a 6 months warm-up phase, it becomes very clear from interactions with your managers, customers and HR, if a job works out for you. Let's say you put out a plan for your professional development within the first year at a new job, and you point out within 6/9/12 months that you are instead put on dead-end projects, working on unchallenging problems that don't reflect your career interests - that's not going to change after 2 more years in that job.
- a_imho 7y ago
  Unless they can give me a reasonable explanation for the job hopping I'm not going to take the risk. The current place was not going to match the salary offered at the next place. Is this reasonable enough? Why do you think people change jobs in the first place? Your approach sends a signal you are hiring people who just want to coast and/or not aware of their market value. Which is also fine, I guess.

ljm 7y ago

I also applied, but I also got good feedback. The problem was that they wanted me to refactor their permission layer as part of the interview and submit it as a contribution when it was done. I abandoned it because the merge conflicts came in faster than the feedback and while i surely fucked up on my part, so did Gitlab. They wanted the contribution and the ability to say no. In retrospect and after the news over the last year I think I dodged a bullet. Of course I dodged into a different one but I don’t wish to engage with Gitlab again.

itake 7y ago

> I always wondered if it was because I questioned the policy of paying people differently based on their location (more specifically, some algorithm's idea of the rent in their area) rather than the work they do. I had the exact same experience. Even if you lived in SF, they pay way below market rate. I have sympathy for their engineers that don't have any other options but to take their deal.

nine_k 7y ago

Our company hires a lot. I once asked if we can give people feedback if we don't make an offer, to help them learn. I was told that this leaves more room for a discrimination suit. While the risk is low, the downside in time, money, and bad PR is significant. There's no upside for the company, except feeling good, in giving honest feedback to a candidate, though. So, strictly no feedback. This is why we can't have nice things.

piokoch 7y ago

Nowadays (almost) no one will give you post-interview feedback. The risk of being sued for "discrimination" because of whatever made-up reason is just too high. In the World when more and more people belong to unknown 3 months earlier "oppressed minority" nobody wants to take chances. The funniest story I read the other day on HN was about some company which needed to fire 10% of their employees. After consulting with the lawyers, consulting company they have hired to help in the process they decided to take a contractor, who would not have any knowledge about employees. That contractor's only job was to randomly select 10% of people to fire. Simple, cheap, safe, no risk of being sued, maybe they have fired some people who would be worth to keep (if they really wish they could hire them back anyway). This is the sad World we live in.

mhd 7y ago
> In the World when more and more people belong to unknown 3 months earlier "oppressed minority" nobody wants to take chances. Oh come on. What country are you living in where they only managed to catch up with civil rights in the last three months? Last added protected class in the US was 2014, if I recall correctly. Can't we keep those "we live in a society" posts confined to reddit?
rkangel 7y ago
> Nowadays (almost) no one will give you post-interview feedback. In Europe, GDPR allows you to ask for your interview notes, and discrimination laws mean that companies need to actually have reasons in them for not hiring you. Given that a GDPR data request is more effort than just providing feedback you usually get some response to the question.
hobs 7y ago
This blog claims that that doesn't happen ever and the HR drones are way over committing to risk mitigation. It was on HN a few days back. http://blog.interviewing.io/no-engineer-has-ever-sued-a-company-because-of-constructive-post-interview-feedback-so-why-dont-employers-do-it/ http://blog.interviewing.io/no-engineer-has-ever-sued-a-comp...

Vinnl 7y ago

I applied as well, got rejected, and asked for feedback. I did get it, but it was not very actionable. Then again, the person who provided me the feedback just copied over the notes from the one person who did the interviewing, so this is probably somewhat hit-or-miss too: you just have to be lucky who interviews you. Which is not just the case for getting feedback, but also for getting the job, I suppose.

bchurch 7y ago

We really appreciate all of your feedback about the GitLab interview process — it helps us improve as we continue to grow. Your experience as a candidate is extremely important to our whole team, and I’m sorry to hear that yours wasn’t positive. We do provide feedback to candidates who have passed the first interview stage and met with the team or hiring manager. Our recruiting team is working through more than 10,000 applications per month, so unfortunately it just isn’t scaleable to provide specific feedback for every applicant in earlier stages. You can find more details on the interviewing page of our handbook: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/ https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/hiring/interviewing/ Thank you again for pointing out areas where we can continue to get better. We hope you’ll consider GitLab again in the future.

brittany6229 7y ago

Thank you all for taking the time to give us feedback on our handbook and location factors. Why we pay local rates as outlined in the following section: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compensation/#why-we-pay-local-rates https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compen.... We work handbook first at GitLab (https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbook-first https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/handbook-usage/#why-handbo...) in line with our value of transparency so that each relevant page acts as a reference for company policies and internal operating procedures. In this case, that may mean the community would see how we define location factors, but also how they are calculated by the compensation team. I understand how the latter can feel very operational when reading through. If there is any feedback on how to make certain sections feel less cold, please open an issue in our compensation issue tracker (https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issues https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issu...) or tag me in a merge request (@brittanyr). With respect to our location factors not having all cities, this is due to taking a geographical areas approach. https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compensation/#geographical-areas https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/global-compen... If there is a city that is 1) not listed or 2) not aligned to local market rates, please feel free to send us an email with this information (compensation@gitlab.com) or open an issue in our compensation issue tracker with the following issue template: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issues/new?issue%5Bassignee_id%5D=&issue%5Bmilestone_id%5D= https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/people-group/Compensation/issu....