How are the career development opportunities at Klarna?

Remote Work Flexibility: Klarna offers flexibility in remote work, allowing employees to balance their personal and professional lives while contributing to global projects. Great Company Culture: Klarna fostered a collaborative and innovative environment, where diverse ideas were encouraged and employees were empowered to thrive in an inclusive workplace. Global Team Collaboration: Working at Klarna provides the opportunity to collaborate with talented professionals from around the world, gaining unique perspectives and building a truly international network. Work-Life Balance: Klarna places emphasis on a healthy work-life balance, with flexibility in working hours and the support needed to take care of personal commitments.

Toxic Local Work Environment: The local work environment can be challenging, with a culture that doesn't always prioritize employee well-being or open communication. Retaliation Against Diverging Ideas: While employees are encouraged to share ideas and suggestions, there is often retaliation if those ideas don't align with management's agenda, which discourages innovation and open dialogue. Limited Room for Growth: There is little opportunity for career advancement or personal development, as the company does not seem to invest in fostering growth for its employees. Employees Seen as Numbers: Management tends to view employees as numbers rather than individuals, leading to a lack of personal recognition or appreciation for the hard work employees contribute. Two-Faced Upper Management: Upper management often exhibits contradictory behavior, which can undermine trust and morale among employees. Lack of Clear Direction and Blame Culture: The company lacks clear direction for growth, and when employees inevitably struggle, they are often blamed, with management finding ways to shift responsibility rather than providing support for improvement.

- Exceptionally smart people. - "Cool," fast-paced environment that encourages creativity and innovation, embracing new AI tools.

- Lack of transparency from leadership creates confusion and distrust among employees. - Frequent restructuring or employees sent to 'pool' of doom, where you wait to be assigned to new roles, causes tons of stress and job insecurity. - Career growth is virtually nonexistent; internal promotions rarely come with salary increases or meaningful advancement, even for high performers. - Culture of favoritism - career progression often appears reserved for personal friends of the CEO. This is especially true for employees outside of Euro markets. - CEO’s micromanagement and aggressive, confrontational communication (especially via Slack) creates a cult-like, high-pressure atmosphere. - Employees feel forced to comply with leadership decisions or risk losing their jobs.

Nice colleagues and sometimes there can be learning opportunites

Lack of recognition, lack of structure, every day the company changes it's direction and people are running around (super busy) just to keep up with the new idea that came from senior management. No one challenges any decisions from the CEO, not that he is always wrong, but for sure he isn't always right. Not a trustworthy employer, they value open AI over employees and no jobs are safe.

Klarna has the latest and greatest AI tools that allow employees to learn and develop.

Personally, the lack of serious and intentional career development and individual goal setting are the most difficult aspects of Klarna.

- good salary for entry level positions - very flexible remote work policy - nice and very helpful people below mid-level management - for US folks: good vacation days (25 vacation days) - dynamic, with many opportunities to explore new career paths, is also encouraged throughout the company - good stepping stone for future career development

- very intense company culture, doesn't encourage questioning specifically upper management - uninterested in employee wellbeing, which was showing through many and recurring layoffs and resignations - company wants everyone to do everything, including the workload left from layoffs, leading to high workloads and burnout - low transparency regarding company changes and updates, especially when it comes to restructuring and job security - bad communication across teams, lots of short-notice workload - very budget\efficiency-focused

Supportive teammates and generally positive work environment Good learning opportunities, especially early in your career

Career progression can be slow at times

diverse and inclusive. Depending on what branch you are in and position you can have career progression.

in the customer service branch any opportunity to progress is very minimal. Company goes through many reorgs, more then any company ive been in before. You never feel like you have a secure position in Klarna.

Not many other companies provide the ability to work at this scale. Depending on what you end up working on, your work has the potential to affect millions of people and drive serious revenue. It's a recognizable brand that will look good on your resume. Many people that have had a successful career at Klarna have gone on to leadership positions in other companies afterwards, so building a network while you are here can lead to good opportunities in the future.

Upper management actively despise their employees and do their best to force attrition and burnout by removing perks, enforcing unpopular policies and applying more and more pressure. There is absolutely no investment into the employees, such as via training, mentoring, or even providing basic resources needed for the job. The result is a cutthroat environment where people compete, rather than collaborate, in fear of losing their jobs. It was not always like this, but it has gotten worse and worse over the years. Because of the immense pressure from above, middle management is rife with politics and getting anything done requires navigating a sea of toxicity. You would do best to try to stay out of it as much as possible. This is not necessarily a reflection of the individuals, but of the environment they find themselves in and the pressure that is put on them. Where previously teams had a lot of autonomy in driving the direction of the product they work on, there is now much more micromanagement and the only way to not find yourself on your way out is to be a yes-man. There is an extreme focus on standardization in tech, which has real benefits, but a drawback is that the average engineer will rarely get to do any actual engineering. If you are happy building products by integrating components, then you will likely enjoy this, but if you want to gain a deeper understanding of how technology works, you may find this frustrating.

You get to work with the latest tools. That's about it.

Klarna is easily the most toxic company I've ever worked for. After returning from sick leave due to burnout caused by the turbulent work environment, I was told I no longer had a job and was asked to leave. They had the audacity to position it as a favor, claiming they were "relieving me of stress because nothing will change at the company." This is just one example of the gaslighting that’s pervasive at all levels, especially from leadership and HR. Klarna's leadership consistently spreads false information, and their treatment of employees is appalling. For example, during discussions about the collective bargaining agreement, management repeatedly attempted to convince Swedish employees not to sign, even resorting to asking individuals about their union membership—something that's illegal. They also try to make you believe you’re the luckiest person to work there while paying you significantly less than the market average. Speaking of pay, despite being a top performer, my salary didn’t increase a cent during my 2+ years at the company, which is unheard of in Sweden. There are no real opportunities for career progression—promotions are reserved for well-connected favorites, not those who perform well. The company’s success is due to employee dedication, despite constant reorgs and gaslighting. Leadership continuously makes impulsive reorg decisions without considering their impact, and communication around these changes is shockingly poor. Management is inexperienced, with many leaders lacking basic people management skills. Most appointments are based on connections rather than merit. Also, there's no budget for learning and development, and employees are expected to cover training costs themselves. Finally, the lack of diversity in leadership is glaring, with three times as many Davids as women in the C-suite. It's no wonder all the best people are leaving.

Decent salary Decent product Great location Good career opportunities

Top Down Micromanagement Bullish leaders People are in it for an IPO