Well run, high growth start up - Anonymous employee GitLab Employee Review

5.0
20 Nov 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

GitLab understands the importance of building a healthy company as well as an incredible product and community. One of the challenges with some of the best products out there is they are so focused on the product they are building that they neglect the culture and health of the company. Not so with GitLab. It is balanced, transparent, healthy, and free from office politics. It is run by a CEO who wants to be a CEO, and who puts his energy into continually improving his ability to be an effective CEO. Other pros: - Talented software developers, ux designers, product managers, marketers, people ops, finance, accounting, solutions architects (SEs), customer support, account managers, and sales professionals. No weak links at the company. - The company and product are improved by open source contributors. - Frugal, practical, and operationally mature. Run like an adult company. - People like working with one another, and are genuinely thrilled to see one another during the company summit held once every 9 months. - Flexible remote-only work culture. Everything important has a url, decisions get written down, and everyone works well asynchronously. - GitLab listens to its customers, and ships new features for them on the 22nd of every month. - The product was the highest rated leader in Forrester's CI Wave. - Listens to and values feedback from developers, IT ops practitioners, and IT leaders.

Cons

- There is always a lot of work to do given the company's rapid growth, so life-work balance can be challenging. - Typical startup challenges: lots of competing priorities and everyone needs to wear a lot of hats.

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GitLab Response
8y
Hi there! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with GitLab! It is so important to us to preserve our unique culture as we grow, and we know that hiring and keeping the best people is our best bet at doing so.

Explore other reviews about GitLab

5.0
24 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Best company I've ever worked for. Strong culture, great leadership, competitive compensation, excellent work life balance, and a genuine focus on employee well being and career growth.

Cons

Fast paced environment and high expectations, but that's part of working at a successful, growing company.

2.0
16 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

OK pay or benefits in the market. Fully remote. Still is trying to frame itself as a big player.

Cons

Leadership went from being collaborative, communicative, and transparent, to being mercurial, secretive, and out of touch with the actual work. OBSESSSES over your AI usage metrics - even if AI doesn't help you and slows you down. The current layoff in progress was communicated poorly and not planned at all. And now they want us to adore the leaders and the company? Cultish vibes. We went from a company that plans ahead to a company that reacts.

5
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