Pros
I’ve been working at Booking.com for almost 7 years now, and I have to say, it’s a pretty awesome place to be. The vibe here is super collaborative, and people act generally speaking within the company’s values—like putting customers first and always wanting to learn. There isn't really a corner office concept, and no matter the position a colleague has, you can reach out, share feedback, discuss, voice the concerns, ideas, proposals etc. If you want to get inholved in projects and support other departments, learn by exposure, get your heads dirty, there are plenty of options, and colleagues are open to the mentoring opportunities. I love the flexibility of the hybrid work model; it’s nice to have the option to work from home some days. The benefits are solid too, which is a huge plus. It is nice to know you have a supportive manager, you are not monitored on the hour you come in or go as long as you deliver on your results, you can organize your work agenda and share your view on priorities, objectives and path to grow. Sometimes it feels i am in a commercial when i go to the office and have some breakfast options, coffee and tea options, and lunch that actually has good healthy options. Also when i pass by the meeting rooms, i see so many colleagues from all over the world, and just the simple day to day discussions with people so diverse, are enriching us, from an individual perspective and opens the door on so many different points of view and cultures. For me, this is thrilling!
Cons
It is a fast paced environment, and that means we all need to learn to work on a specific topic that might not end up a "successful experiment". Working with lots of A/B testing means that you test your assumptions and if the data shows it is not worth moving forward with whatever we worked on and tested, we need to learn to let go and pivot. Also as a company having a bottom up and top to bottom approach means that we need to be flexible in acknowledging colleague's input and create the space for people to be heard, but this means decisions cannot be made on the spot and sometimes it takes longer for something to be implemented or a decision to be made. Incremental improvements, lessons learned and reiterations are great to move forward faster not with the most polished version, but it also means we need to act when things break and fix them as long as we move forward. It is a ride to work here, but not lots of companies out there actually live their values and rarely the values of the company align with those of individuals.
