Great marketing, average company - Software Engineer Toptal Employee Review

3.0
Feb 15, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

High pay, unlimited PTO, reimbursement policies and opportunity to work on big projects along lots of smart people. Culture inside the teams themselves was great, in contrast to what happens across the company as whole.

Cons

Work pressure is high and people work after working hours, even after midnight to deliver projects. There are too much attributions for engineers. Your daily work as an engineer involves: the expertise you were hired for + the stack out of your expertise (AKA everyone is expected to be fullstack regardless of their role) + frequent hotfixes + reviewing a massive quantity of PRs (your team's and external teams) + dealing with demands from people in other teams and engaging on discussions across lots of Slack channels + leadership skills. There is a rating system for your competency called TopSteps, which had rates going from "below expectations" to "blowing away expectations". Lately they changed the base rating from "meeting expectations" to "working towards expectations" because "everyone has something to improve". Think of a motivational culture. Transparency was lacking a lot lately too. They made us think that layoffs were unlikely and froze raises "to avoid them". Then they called a meeting to talk about "team restructuring", merging some teams, which seemed unreasonable. It all made sense afterwards, when the layoffs happened. Freezing raises to pay less on the compensation for laid-off people, merging teams because every team would be a lot smaller. Layoffs were brutal. Not all people had the chance to understand what was happening. It was announced over a 10 minutes meeting. People who couldn't attend that had to ask ex-teammates privately to get any clue of what would happen next. Some managers didn't know their engineers were fired until moments after it happened.

Explore other reviews about Toptal

5.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Toptal has been my favorite place to work so far! • The flexibility of remote work is amazing. • I’ve had the chance to work with fantastic clients. • The internal team is supportive, talented, and a pleasure to work with.

Cons

Sometimes it can take a bit longer to find a new engagement if you’re looking for opportunities in Asian time zones. In my experience, Europe and the Americas tend to have more opportunities and faster matching.

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Toptal Response
17h
Thank you for your valuable feedback! Your insights are important to us.
1.0
Jul 3, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Met some good dedicated employees and freelance workers.

Cons

Lack of any real industry solutions or capabilities since 100% of delivery services are freelance contractors. Model has been successful as providing staff augmentation to clients, but all intellectual capital and outcomes are owned by the clients or the freelancer. Toptal is simply a staffing platform broker who marks up the freelance talent. Great if you need a plumber, but not if you're planning to build a bathroom.

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