Toptal reviews

They like to be intentionally vague about details and facts until you’ve become an employee and then the truth comes out. Examples: If you ask a recruiter about benefits they’ll tell you about unlimited PTO and a 401k plan. However, once you start you’ll find out that the they don’t actually believe in unlimited PTO, instead they describe time off as discretionary which you should only need to use if you are burnt out (and, according to Toptal, that won’t happen in your first year). However, they will provide you numerous examples of how you can work during your vacation, and will emphasize how little time off you actually need to take. Then you’ll find out that while, yes, they have a 401k plan they do not match any contributions. Instead of matching they have a profit sharing program. Don’t plan on getting any details about that either, they can’t tell you how they calculate profit sharing or any general guidelines about the program. Finally, for anyone who has actually worked at a fast-paced company you’ll quickly realize that their definition of fast-paced is completely different than everybody else, processes are clunky and inefficient but it’s the “Toptal Way” so don’t question it. Bottom line: Do your research of Toptal vs other distributed companies. You’ll easily see the benefits offered and culture established at the other companies is head and shoulders above Toptal so set your standards low and you won’t be as disappointed. Get in, get experience working remotely, then move on.

This place is embarrassingly bad. It's not so much that it's just a poorly run company. It's that some of the execs and recruiting team think this is actually a good place to work. I've seen recruiters tell candidates that Toptal is the best talent company in the world without a hint of irony. That's right, Toptal, a company with crazy turnover, no name recognition, below average pay, and managers who are now resorting to openly begging people on LinkedIn to apply here is trying to market itself as the best talent company in the world. No wonder it's lost 3 CMOs in 2 years.  Here's the truth about Toptal: Toptal does not have elite talent since its pay is not competitive against top companies.  Toptal has sued more employees than given them equity. You can look it up and confirm if you think I'm exaggerating.  Toptal isn't a unique company. There are countless places that basically have the exact same business model including 100% remote work.  There are no company holidays here. You need to be approved for any day you take off. A lot of people end up working major holidays.  HR mainly exists to protect the CEO's ego. Internally, any negative feedback is followed by a meeting with an HR rep to discuss how you're wrong. Externally, HR focuses on inflating its ratings. Just look at how many one sentence 5 star reviews here consist of everything is great and there are no cons.