Engineering and management wise however, it's a total shit show. Our CTO has no previous management experience and no vision of how to build a functioning engineering organization. We grew from 10 engs to 50 in a year in the hopes of adding new products/features quickly, but the new teams had no direction and had to come up with their own way of working. So now the infra is fragmented, each team has its own task management tool and pulls in a different direction, and shipping the simplest feature takes months instead of days. Things like effective 1:1s, personal growth plans and improving dev experience are obviously on no one's mind. Most engineers and managers are good people and I believe they have good intentions, but no one has a real incentive to rock the boat.
It's frustrating to see the amount of waste and the engineering bar being so low.
My position is a hands-on team lead, reporting to the CTO. I am well respected in the company, but wasn't able to influence the CTO to take significant actions. I occasionally talk to the CEO and the founders, and they don't seem to be very concerned about it. I'm truly baffled by it. It seems it can take years before anyone will question the situation.
I joined early and have good salary and good amount of equity. It would have been easier to leave if I didn't believe in the business long term, but I think it's going to continue doing great.
I'm an engineer at heart and enjoy solving complex problems and being a part of an enthusiast team. It saddens me being in a mediocre organization that doesn't want to improve. I have no problem finding another job (20 years of experience, good network), but I wonder maybe I should just take a step back and stop worrying so much - let it play itself out and focus more on my personal life.
What would you do?
It is incredible and terrifying how much harm stress can cause an individual, and how much the individual may appear to change when only the stress is removed.
CTOs that have no business being CTOs are interesting creatures to watch, but can be very hazardous to your health.