https://www.kana.systems/

Kana Systems

Product Manager

October - December 2022 • Omaha, NE

What I liked

One of the things I liked about working at Kana was the flexible schedule. Everyone has every other Friday off, but it's still eight hours a day the other days. This allowed more time to enjoy my weekends and balance my personal and professional life. The atmosphere at the workplace was also relaxed and friendly. I also was given the freedom to try different tasks that helped me grow as a professional.

What I wish was different

The company strategy and processes changed constantly. This made it hard to follow a clear direction and plan ahead. Moreover, I did not feel trusted to make decisions within my expertise. Everything was consensus driven, which slowed down the work and created unnecessary conflicts. I felt that I was not compensated fairly for all my work. Get any compensation agreements in writing, well ahead of time. Another thing that disappointed me was the lack of equity. I was promised equity multiple times after signing an offer, but never received it. Finally, I did not have experienced employees I could learn from, and the level of sophistication was very basic. I wanted to work in a more professional, challenging and stimulating environment.

Advice

If you are considering an internship at Kana, I have one piece of advice for you: don’t succumb to the hype and ask lots of questions. This place will likely present itself as a hot defense tech startup on the cutting edge of AI, but you need to be skeptical and curious. You will hear a lot of things, but only believe what’s in writing. Ask what happened to prior interns and if they were given full time offers. Ask about the current clients and projects. Ask who you’ll be learning from. Ask about employee turnover. Ask about expected pay and benefits. These questions will help you get a realistic picture of what it’s like to work here and whether it’s worth your time and effort.
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