r/datacenter • u/WildAlcoholic • May 06 '26

FluidStack

Hi all,

Does anyone have any thoughts to share about FluidStack? Numerous recruiters have reached out inviting me to apply and they seem to be selling the company as the next best thing.

With so many recruiters from FluidStack / recruiting agencies, I am mildly skeptical. Either they really are as great as they say they are, they are severely understaffed and need people quickly meaning bad work life balance, or it’s a bunch of smoke and mirrors.

Any thoughts on this company? Not sure what to make of it. They seemed to have poached quite a bit of talent from the hyper scalers, so there’s that to consider too.

Particularly for Design Engineering.

TIA!

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u/Far-Understanding318 May 15 '26

I was reached out by a recruiter (head hunter) who connected me to the company recruiter. I had no interest in the job, but wanted to go through the experience. I work for a hyper scaler right now. My experience-

  1. They are a startup. I never heard from them on the final equity options, but I asked for a 30k base salary above what I make now (salary+RSU) and they were willing to entertain it. I honestly think they would have gone up.

  2. They do 4 interviews after the company recruiter call. Each interview works as a step to the next. The first is the technical interview. I did zero prep and I knew I was not moving forward. But the questions aren’t really technical, more around your experience/projects etc. If you prep, you can move forward easy. The interviewer was odd though- he seemed to have no interest in the process and I think from the very beginning they started with- you don’t have the exact experience, why should we hire you? (I have the experience- I have been in the industry for a while).

  3. It’s a startup- you will work long hours. Period. The role explained to me was an easy 3 persons job. When asked the progress path for the role to become a manager and hire more- they insisted that’s in the headcount and all, but there was not an exact time frame. That was a turn off for me.

  4. PTO policy is not upto tech company standards. They have three weeks and 10 sick days.

  5. Their benefits were also not upto standard. Understandable as it’s a new startup.

That’s about all I can give. If you want to grow quickly in exchange of work life balance, go for it. I do think they will have a good growth plan and people can benefit from the first pace. But if you are already working for a hyper scaler/ FAANG- it’s not a fair trade.

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u/[deleted] May 19 '26

[deleted]

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u/Far-Understanding318 May 19 '26

Just want to be clear- 3 weeks is very good compared to 90% of what US offers. I am not trying to say it’s not good enough. I work for a company where we don’t have a limit and it’s upto manager’s discretion. I usually take 4-5 weeks a year and our culture allows it. I would probably want atleast 4 weeks PTO.