Pros
Expedia is a decent place to work, and your peers really work with you to overcome the constant stream of obstacles. Once you have a year + under your belt, one starts to understand the tribal culture which exists here and can start to have some positive impact. Compensation is O.K., and I guess just having a job in this economic climate should be considered a plus. Expedia really does possess some world-class talent despite the plethora of technological challenges people have to work within. Working in downtown Bellevue is also exciting compared to the old and dispersed campus where we previously resided--there are a lot more office drop-ins or elevator bump-ins which keeps people in touch more than before. Other reasons? I'm thinking... Networking is very easy compared to other companies and invaluable to do your job. If you are on the front lines, it really is the key to survival. When you are in the same boat full of peers, then you are all trying to keep the ship moving forward despite the current conditions and storm of unknowns laying ahead.
Kontras
Where to begin? Upper management consists of 1/2 the "old guard" and folks who are relatively new to the company. (I'd bank on the latter rather than the former, personally.) Changes are being made, and it will take some time to see if the new people have a positive impact or simply fall into "business as usual". The secretive rounds (plural) of layoffs and lack of communication about them wasn't something one can chalk-up to the good side of things. Expedia is blatantly revenue-driven despite the ever pressing hardships placed upon employees. This is understandable to a point, however, makes you feel like one of "The Borg" as opposed to a valued asset and employee of the company despite of your contributions. If you're not bringing in money, then it is doubly difficult to show your worth. (Even then you might not get recognized.) The laying-off of people two days before their bonuses were to be awarded so the company could get out of paying them just stokes the wrong way no matter how you look at it. Come on... Seriously. Shame on you Expedia. The review process is an absolute joke. "Calibration" meetings during review time do not weigh one's written review--at all. Written reviews are not looked at by senior / executive / C-level management. It's all based upon what your manager and their peers think of you. They do not take in consideration your accomplishments or what you contributed to the company as a whole. (If you are part of the "old boys club" then you don't have much to worry about.) 360-degree reviews are not always performed, and this can really bite you if one spends the majority of time working with groups outside of your own. (You're screwed.) Feedback, positive or negative, is extremely rare so it's difficult to discern how you are doing in the eyes of the people responsible for your review. Consider yourself forewarned. Consider yourself lucky if you get a mid-year review with your manager that means anything. Documentation?... Documentation? Expedia doesn't need no stink'in documentation! All jokes aside, documentation either doesn't exist or is so far out-of-date it's irrelevant. Again, you are in a tribal-knowledge culture here. Keep your friends close, and the knowledgeable ones / veterans of the company even closer. Latch onto them like no tomorrow and become their best friend or you are in a world of hurt. Movement around the company or upward mobility? Good luck. You'll get ignored like a pimple on an elephant's butt. No matter how many e-mails you fire off--if you don't personally know people then you will have better luck looking outside of the company. You'd figure after a month of inquiring and working your way up to the VP level someone would respond. Nope. Similar to documentation is communication. Communication? What's that? Either someone left / was asked to leave or a re-org took place and you're scrambling to figure which way is up. Processess are in a constant state of flux and makes it virtually impossible to implement traditional methodologies to streamline releases. Layoffs? Expedia is laying-off people? Who? In what groups? What's happening? The outside world knows before we do? Etc. How much more can I type before hitting the word limit?
