Where do I begin... The company is mean to its people and is proud of it. It is also extremely hierarchical, contrary to the image it is painting. Argue your point with the management at your own risk, you might well get fired for that, no matter your achievements. This is why the most stupid management decisions are followed blindly, lead to bad results, and then the blame game begins.
At times it seems that Shopify exists first and foremost to honour and please its founder and CEO. The rotten culture emanates from him. He is feared at all levels, every document he might look at is being scrutinized and polished for days, if not weeks, while really important decisions are being made on a whim. CEO's most primitive pronouncements are quoted as divine truth, and woe to those who as much as smile, let alone doubt his wisdom. Yes, I know, it's ridiculous.
Performance at Shopify does not mean producing better products, it means doing more, for example, writing more code and shipping new features more often. Since the company prides itself on the ease with which it fires people, employees are afraid all the time to be let go. As a result, much of the work done, e.g., code written, is of low quality. The objective is to show that you've done a lot, high-quality work rarely figures into the equation. Code reviews are usually shallow too, as everybody is focused on churning out more code.
Agility is seen as equal to making decisions quickly, plans change all the time with no rhyme or reason, and chaos reigns. Shopify loves chaos and praises it openly. It also loves looking for people to blame for bad results.
The talk about caring for the customers is just talk. In reality, the product leaves a lot to be desired, and if you work for Shopify, expect to be reached on LinkedIn by frustrated users who cannot get any meaningful help from support.
To summarize, unless you are desperate, steer clear of this toxic environment.
