Awkward - Engineering Manager Personio Employee Review

2.0
Dec 23, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great office and a very multicultural team compared to other companies in Munich. Looks good on your resume, and everyone gets a lot of contact from recruiters, even in the current economy.

Cons

New leadership in tech over the past 12 months. A “CPTO” joined from Meta but has no actual background in engineering. She is also very unfriendly and only talks with really senior people or the new team she brought with her from Meta. If you say hello to her in the hallway she just looks down and keeps walking. Personio has invested a lot in new engineering talent over the past 12 months, really a lot. Great people, but we don’t have much to show for the investment after a year. The application is no better than it was a year ago, and we still ship unfinished mvps that break or require a lot of manual steps to make things work. Meta is an amazing product no doubt, but what Personio does in Europe is just very different. I’m not sure any of them understand what we need to do. Also a lot of people are very on edge and anxious since the change in leadership. A lot of people just disappear with no communication from one day to the next. There are so many rumours of a big cut coming so they can hire more people in the US. We also removed our long-term values of transparency and communication. A lot of people say this is growing pains, but I don’t think so. The culture is bad. Many of my colleagues and me included are not too far from being fully vested. There are many discussions of leaving as soon as we’re fully vested.

Explore other reviews about Personio

5.0
Oct 14, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

My coworkers are wonderful, I feel energized coming to work everyday

Cons

The company has had a lot of churn at Director+ levels, not a clear vision across the company

1.0
Oct 30, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart collaborative colleagues at the lower IC levels.

Cons

Personio is a dying company. The over-complexity of the company's technical systems is comical. Every attempt to simplify seems to lead to more complexity as things get half migrated and left to rot. Engineering leadership seems clueless and unable to present a clear plan-of-action to get things on track. Principal engineers force engineering time to be spent on silly projects that don't move the needle long-term. There is an overall aversion to taking the time to learn deeply about systems being used. Personio feels like a combination of all of the negatives of both a startup and a mature tech company, with none of the positives. The tech is half assed and duct taped together, but still somehow everything moves at a glacial pace. There is a mass shared delusion at the company that an IPO is in reach. No investor is going to buy this company's junk shares on the open market.

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