TripAdvisor – “TripAdvisor - as much fun as it is work.”

Pros

TripAdvisor's first goal in hiring is to hire the person that fits best, so everyone you are working with is great at what they do, and everyone gets along. Catered lunches 3 times a week, a game room with foosball, xbox, rockband, and wii make for a fun environment. Drinks, snacks, and comfortable open collaboration areas make for a relaxing environment. Put that together with relaxed approach to schedules and you have a stress free work environment. TripAdvisor maintains its nimbleness regardless of how many employees so there is always something new. It is a job you will want to come back to everyday.

Cons

The motto is "speed wins", which means something new every week, even every day. While that makes the job interesting, it also makes it a little confusing and hard to keep the various projects you're working on straight. The company has been growing rapidly, despite waiting for the "perfect candidate" for each position and not rushing the hiring. As such, they suffer a bit from the unavoidable growing pains, as any company would. In some respects things still feel like a small company, but those clash with some of the unavoidable aspects of a large company. Everyone is devoted to easing this as much as possible, but it just takes time.

Advice to Senior Management

With a rapidly growing company it is hard to keep everyone aware of changes and who's responsible for what, but it is crucial for things to run smoothly. As more people join the team it is easy to try and move faster, but until some positions are filled it is easy for people (especially management) to be overloaded. Everyone needs to remember to push back sometimes and slow things down when things start to move too fast.