I've been at GitLab since early 2015 (employee #10), and the culture is one of the major reasons why I joined, and stayed. :)
Would you mind elaborating?
For anyone else reading along, our Handbook (https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/) covers our culture (and every other aspect of working here) very well.
My impression was just based on some things I've been hearing about compensation, and a couple of negative comments and articles.
I think the best way to explain it is that GitLab sounds like a more traditional place to work. Similar to companies in the UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It's very unlikely that I would accept a job in one of these countries for the same reasons. Software engineers are typically not paid very well and are treated more like "code monkeys" who report to their managers and don't have any self-direction.
I guess I've just been spoiled by Silicon Valley, so the rest of the world doesn't feel very competitive compared to some of these SV startups.
There's nothing about a healthy engineering culture that makes it unique to Silicon Valley, and there are many, many companies in those regions you mention that would take significant issue with that generalization.
If you want to optimize for annual salary, Silicon Valley is probably the place to be, but if you want to optimize for happiness (however a developer may define that for themselves), it's just one of many potential places to go, and if you want to optimize for work/life balance, it's probably not even in the top 10.
It’s just my personal experience interviewing at a number of startups/companies in these countries, and from friends who work at them. I would really love to move to Toronto, but the salaries are just way too low. Hopefully I can find another way to move there.
Thanks!