Skillz reviews

3.1

48% would recommend to a friend

(336 total reviews)
avatar

Andrew Paradise

46% approve of CEO

36% positive business outlook

Skillz has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 336 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Skillz employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

336 reviews
5.0
Mar 23, 2022

Such wow, so amaze

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Skillz payz the billz! It has quickly joined ranks with other legendary startups such as Friendster. Here’s how: * Innovative business model. It’s like Tupac once said: “I’m tryna spend a dollar to make fifteen cents”. * Acolytes of Silicon Valley’s "fail fast, fail always" mantra. * We're disrupting the competition layer of cutthroat Solitaire. * The 5-star reviews are approved by management, as required. * Everyone here is happy and all smiles, as required. * The mandatory fun company activities are indeed fun, as required. But sadly, haterz keep writing 1-star reviews. Fake newz. Watch out haterz, the smackdown’s coming your way right away: * Haterz claim there's massive turnover. We have an insanely high graduation rate; our alumni base is prolific. * Haterz claim that the founders are tone deaf. To my knowledge, both of them can sing reasonably in tune. * Haterz claim that the founders have extreme tunnel vision. Neither one has glaucoma. * Haterz claim that there's no work-life balance. Skillz becomes your best life, so nothing to balance. * Haterz claim that employees are forced to drink the company kool-aid. The SF office has tea, coffee, and sugar-free energy drinks, but no kool-aid. * Haterz claim that there's a lot of gaslighting. The lights at the office are 100% LEDs. * Haterz claim that there’s frequent and blatant double-speak. It's called quantum physics, look up Schrodinger's cat. * Haterz claim that there’s a ton of micromanagement. Not to brag, but most of our managers are tall. * Haterz claim the company is all sizzle, no steak. Many of our employees are vegan.

Cons

I haven't come across any cons, as required.

1.0
May 6, 2019

Honest Review in a Sea of Fake/Forced Reviews

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Before I start my review, I just wanted to point out that the Glassdoor rating for this company was a 2.8 before Skillz forced 15-20 manager level employees to write positive reviews. They weren't even smart enough to have the reviews written on different days (look at all the positive reviews on 2/22/10). Since then, the company has been asking all employees to write reviews (they are more spaced out now). Now onto the actual pros: Coworkers - The best part of Skillz is the people. You will bond over complaining about Skillz Compensation - The compensation has increased recently to be more aligned with Market value. It's still not worth it

Cons

Where to even start with the cons. There's so many I don't even know where to begin Horrible work life balance - Depends on the team, but often times you will be shamed or feel pressured to work more hours. Certain teams such as Product, you can expect to work a minimum of 50-60 hour weeks Extremely immature & incompetent upper management - The CEO is a petulant child that is holding the company back. If you get on his bad side for whatever reason, do not expect to last at the company for long. Upper management does not take constructive criticism well. The CEO will only like you if you heavily agree with him and praise him. They want puppets, not people. The main product (SDK) is in dire need of a complete re-design, but the CEO is against this idea because it is "his product". Zero transparency - One day, you may walk in and find out that your coworkers have been fired. Not only that, but often times the direct managers are not notified or even told why their employee was fired. Gambling product masked as "eSports" company - There is no eSports part of this company. It is a gambling company that preys on and targets lower income individuals. Relatively young employees - Skillz for the most part has only had success hiring fresh grads/interns that have not been in the industry for long to know any better. Retention rate - Horrible retention rate, roughly around 1 year or less average. Horrible management culture - Majority of middle management has only had the horrible upper management to learn from, fostering a toxic culture of micromanagement, blame from management, and gaslighting Completely useless "Town Hall Meetings" - Town Hall meetings were created in order to ask upper management questions and to increase transparency. These meetings are completely useless. Essentially an hour of upper management rambling on and on, spouting fluff without actually answering the questions. Some important issues have come up during this Town Hall, which were brushed off and never brought up again (things like female employees being talked over and disregarded during meetings). I could keep going on but won't. Bottom line is: do yourself a favor and stay far away from this company. Look at some of the older REAL reviews, and see how negative they are. It isn't a coincidence.

5.0
May 22, 2023

Wonderful

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

• He loves his Instagram: I actually learn more about working out and showing off than my current work • He taught me to make people forcibly follow me. He taught me how to say “do you want to get fired by Andrew?” so that others can say yes to me without question • He is quite comical. He spends his time debating whether he’s a CPO or CEO when everyone just stares in silence • He has a willing supporter in LA office who just says “yes!” to whatever he says and makes video all day to make Andrew feel good about Skillz and himself. I suspect the review “Inspiring Place to Work” on May 10, 2023, “Winner Winner” on May 12, 2023 and “Amazing Gaming Company” on May 13, 2023 is written by the same person • He makes his CTO and VP Product work so hard to hire people only to see them leave after 2 weeks or 3 months. But before they leave, he made sure they gave rousing town hall speeches to give people an illusion • It’s so bad that no full-timers even want to work in this place. We have so many people who said they will join only to see them renege the day before they join • He hired expensive KPMG consultants in January because nobody wanted to work in the company – until he fired them without paying the bills • His partner-in-crime forced me to write this glowing review – that’s why it’s still 5 stars

Cons

What else can I say? I am speechless

Viewing 1 - 3 of 336 Reviews

Glassdoor has 371 Skillz reviews submitted anonymously by Skillz employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Skillz is right for you.