Netflix Reviews

Pros

-There aren't set career paths - if you're ambitious, this is a huge plus
-Working with exceptionally bright, competent, interesting, and fun colleagues
-Flexibility - ability to set your own hours and WFH, no vacation policy (just need to get your job done and communicate with your team)
-Learning environment - Netflix attracts a lot of people who like to learn from/teach one another. Most teams are working highly cross-functionally, so you get exposure to a lot of different groups
-Free food! (lunch provided daily, and there's a decent breakfast spread, snacks, drinks, etc.)
-Shuttle service
-Fast paced environment, with little process... up to you how to do your job

Cons

The expectations are very high, and the workload ebbs and flows. It's nice to be able to take vacation when the workload is lower, but I've definitely felt overwhelmed before. If you want every day to be the same or like to fly under the radar, this is not a place for you.

Con (with an upside) -- I have seen several people get fired, which can effect moral temporarily. It was scary at first, but my management gives a lot of feedback, so I feel secure in my job not. Additionally, I've never once been surprised when someone was fired - it's pretty clear (at least to me) who is performing and who is not, and management is transparent about it. It can feel cut-throat, but it's nice to know you can trust and rely on your team to do their work.

Advice to Senior Management

Maintain the transparency and flexibility.

Don't forget to praise exceptional work.

Pros

The engineers are the smartest most capable bunch I have worked with in my career.

Cons

The executives have no clue how to run the company. Their success is based on luck and they are proud to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a new marketing and PR team.

Pros

Great technology and very big market opportunity make this a great company to be a part of. Leadership has made a bad move and this will pass.

Cons

Currently there is a lot of bad press and there are risks that a competitor will buy them or drive them out of business.

Advice to Senior Management

find a strategic alliance that will provide the capital needed to continue to acquire content as you perfect the streaming service - HD streaming needs lots of work.

Pros

Pay is great, but save your money... the severance package will only last you so long.

Cons

Most of the "benefits" of being an exempt employee come with a very high price tag. I am not just talking about the unusually high salaries. Sure, you can take "as much time off as you want" if you don't mind spending that time worrying about if you'll have a job when you get back, or hell... even getting the time to take a vacation at all. The culture of fear is VERY real. There is zero work life balance. When I started I was suprised to see so many 30 somethings who were single and had no kids. I learned quickly that it's almost the only way to keep your job. 60 hours a week doesn't work when you have a family or even a significant other, especially when what precious time you do have off you are worried about work. Feedback is relative to who is giving it. I received my first real feedback session after I interviewed for a position 6 months after being hired. I received positive feedback, then was laid off 2 weeks later.

Advice to Senior Management

The culture of fear is developed from the top down. While "freedom and responsibility" sounds great on paper, my experience was better described as "uncertainty and pressure". I am not someone who is unfamiliar with hard work and giving everything I have... but if you are not clear as toi how much is enough it leaves you with a pit of stress in your stomach.

Pros

Freedom to use latest technology. Large customer base. Smart engineers. Profitable company able to hire and properly resource development effort. Well known brand. Product is loved by most customers, and available just about everywhere. Competition is behind. Clear leader in unlimited streaming.

Cons

Senior leadership very confused. Communication from the top done very poorly. Lots of knee-jerk reactions and fire drills. Software complexity is very high, but cross functional coordination is poor. Poor management of growth. Lots of really bad decisions made. Hired too fast in 2010-2011 (and added too many mediocre managers), and now they are paying the price.

Advice to Senior Management

Break up the old boys club and bring in skilled senior management from the outside who know how to run a global company at scale. Engineering talent is good, but current management is lacking ability to handle the company's growth and properly leverage the talent.

Pros

It's a decent JOB (emphasis on purpose) if you are looking for a heads down, monotonous coding job. If you can manage a decent amount of work and the perspective, you will have a stable pay check.

Cons

I was sold on all the culture stuff and drank the cool-aid at first. After spending a lot f time at Netflix, my perspective has changed for the worse. What good is the sales pitch if you can't deliver.

Some organizations are terrible (i am not talking about IT/ back-office type group) when it comes to recognizing people, allowing (forget about encouraging) their growth. No carrer, no recognition. In a way, its a career dead-end. Its a JOB.

Recent break-neck hiring has bought in a TON of managers (e.g. instead of bringing in 1 project manager, they've hired >1 managers). Believe it or not, it takes 4 times the amount of meetings (compared to 2 years ago at Netflix) to get 1/2 of what we used to get done in the same period of time.

Today, all of the talk about culture (except firing people for no good reason), freedom etc are just BS.

No family insurance (medical, dental etc). Company only pays for the employee but in reality, they don't care.

Advice to Senior Management

Apparently, top management (who've been at Netflix forever) thinks engineers who's been at Netflix for more than a couple of years is ineligible move into a management role because they won't be able to hire people. Seriously. Again, this seems to be applied differently in different organizations.

i would love to hear from the management about what data they have to back this up this bs.

Another career killer: Hire people who 'know' their job i.e. an engineer converting to a manager means that person has to 'learn' how to be a manager. Given all the recent (Q4 2011) news about Netflix, decide for yourself about the management 'knowing'.

Pros

Open communication with different levels of management. Working with hard working, smart, and talented people who push you to succeed.

Cons

Not many opportunities for career advancement in my field - often felt stuck doing what I was doing. Side projects were slim to none.

Pros

getting a pay check is all you have to look forward to.

Cons

management doesnt appreciate hard work.

Advice to Senior Management

employees are the blood and veins of netflix. start treating them like it. without employees you're worthless.

Pros

great culture of openess, communication, respect, and high-performance
no 'brilliant jerks' tolerated
complete autonomy in your work

Cons

less job security than you might feel at other companies

Pros

No vacation policy and flexbility. High pay, which is meant to replace some of the perks that other companies offer. Interesting and fun industry. Employees are smart and work as a team for the greater good.

Cons

The "freedom and responsiblity" culture works for some, as long as you do not disagree with management. There is very high turnover. When people are let go, they are surprised. People are afraid to make mistakes, which makes for a stressful enviroment. I have never felt comfortable working there. Management is out of touch with its customers and makes hasty decisions that contradict common sense. Employees suffer because of this. Why would the former CFO leave when the stock on its way to its peak?

Advice to Senior Management

Your employees are valuable resources. Treat them as such.