TripAdvisor Reviews

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – There are lots of smart, interesting, friendly, fun people below the upper management level.
There is a great sense of comradery among employees below the upper management level.
The engineering team is great to work with. Great attitude, great ideas.
The free lunches, snacks, and drinks are nice, and lunch time is a good opportunity to chat with colleagues and meet new people.

Cons – There is a total lack of people management ability and emotional intelligence at the upper management level. These individuals are in need of a people management course. Some of them also need a lesson in time management and prioritization.

Overall, there is very little investment in employee satisfaction, motivation, and growth. Yes, there are some great team leaders within the organization, but that's the exception, not the rule. I don't think these people learned their skills at TripAdvisor.

Moving between departments at TripAdvisor is much more difficult than it needs to be. Isn't it better to keep a great employee and let them learn something new than to lose them altogether?

Advice to Senior Management – Don't let a single bad manager alienate good people who actually like working for the company. Hold managers accountable when good people leave, and ask yourself what these managers could have done to help the employee grow and feel satisfied.

Take a hard look at some of your VPs and make the tough decisions before it's too late.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – The best thing about working at Tripadvisor is that for the most part you will be working with a LOT of very smart people. The people here are dedicated and are typically very good at what they do.

Obviously the free lunch, foosball, keg, videogames doesn't hurt.

Cons – You will work hard at Tripadvisor. Don't be surprised by 50-60 hour weeks. Some of the management teams fail to realize what they are asking for sometimes. And when asking for help (as in more bodies to help produce), good luck as far as I can tell.

The free lunch gets repetitive over time, but beggars can't be choosers.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognition. A simple pat on the back can go a long way, but after somebody rolls out a product that make you multiple millions of dollars, kick down a little bit.

Also, it used to be that things got done quickly around here. It seems that process has become a big thing, slowing things down, without actually improving the product.

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – There are a lot of really greet positives that stand out and have been often repeated on this site:
      - Free Lunch 3 days a week
      - Flexible Work schedules, Summer Fridays, etc.
      - Snack Wall
      - Gym Reimbursement
      - Xbox 360, Wii, Rockband, Foosball, etc.
      - Friday Happy Hours

While all of the above make working at TripAdvisor a pleasure, they are only a small part of why I enjoy working here. The work itself is exciting -- the cross section of travel and tech. is rapidly evolving and the # of players are constantly growing. I know its cliche, but I like how fast-paced the environment is and how transparent the results of my work can be. The popular motto "Speed Wins" can at times be tiresome to here, but there is a innate truth to it that fuels progress at the company. If you are the type of person that gets excited about coming up with an ideas and then figuring out how to bring them to market rapidly, this will be an excellent experience.

Ultimately, the best part of my time at TripAdvisor has been the people. When you spend at least 8 hours a day with a group of people, your happiness at work is dictated by not only the people you report to, but also the people you interact with regularly, whether its work related or at lunch and company happy hours. I've found the people I work with to be helpful, interesting, and most importantly, genuinely good people.

Cons – In terms of negatives, nothing stands out as an obvious negative. There are concerns though, that relate to different groups and can get in the way of you enjoying your job.

First and foremost, I think you need to take a long and hard look at who your manager is going to be and what his or her managing style is going to be like prior to taking a job at TripAdvisor. If you know people that work at TripAdvisor, fully make use of that resource and try to understand as much about the group you are joining as you can. I believe you are in charge of managing your own career and the reason there are some mixed experiences at TripAdvisor is because different managers and different groups operate differently. Product is very different from Engineering which is in turn different from Mobile or New Initiatives. Some bosses are more hands on and others give you a bit more rope.

A second issue is career advancement. TripAdvisor is rapidly growing, which can be done in many different ways. Some of it has clearly been through acquiring other internet companies into the TripAdvisor Media Group umbrella, which, for the most part, will have no affect on your career. The second, which can be questionable is the hiring of middle/upper level management that tends to create new layers of the pyramid that didn't previously exist. How that would affect your own career progression is unclear at this point. I think it is critically important to have an open conversation with your manager about career progression before joining, and maintain that dialogue over the duration of your career.

Lastly, there is the issue of collaboration between groups and overarching oversight. I think as a whole, we do a very good job of pushing out new ideas and distributing responsibility between the groups. However, different groups sometimes have diametrically opposed goals which puts added pressure on upper management to determine the overall direction of the company. I think there could be better communication of the direction we want to take TripAdvisor over the next few years and more collaborative brainstorming that helped make people feel invested in the company as a whole, and not just the group we work in. For example, its easy for a group to feel that their only concern is to increase the # of subscriptions or referrals to a new product, but not enough work is done to communicate how your individual goals tie into the company's goals and determining where collaboration between groups can further progress for everyone.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to be diligent about hiring great talent with a passion for travel and tech. Moreover, don't be afraid to expand your recruiting network and reshape how you grow the company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – Some of the best people work here. Not having to worry about lunch is great. Free shuttle from train (though the times should be more accessible.) Flexible work schedule.

Cons – The company has grown so much and it's has obvious growing pains. There have been many re-orgs in the past year to address issues, but problems still exist. Employees are not managed or even paid attention to. No promotion from within. If your boss doesn't care about your team how are you supposed to care about what you do. It's been 6 months since we've had a meeting with the rest of our department.

Advice to Senior Management – There are not enough chiefs to handle all the facets of Marketing, managers are over-loaded with too many direct reports. Disperse PM's to specific teams. Allow 360 reviews to see how employees interact with each other. If your boss doesn't care about your team how are you supposed to care about what you do.

Former Employee – worked at TripAdvisor

Pros – I think there are a few really great things about TripAdvisor:
* product people love
* the great office space
* food, snacks, fun events
* kegerator

Cons – There were a lot of reasons why I left. They included:
* terrible middle-management layer (and in general, way too many layers in a company that small)
* lots of opinions that muddle product development, nobody given proper responsibility for a product
* some good process, but a lot of "one person made this mistake, so let's introduce this step to prevent it ever happening again" type of things
* weird, "controlling" attitude. e.g. there is a foosball table, but people get in trouble for using it
* lack of recognition for good work
* micromanaging, and lots of it

Advice to Senior Management – Some new talent should hopefully continue to improve things but the existing culture needs to be changed

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – -friendly supportive atmosphere, interesting and constantly moving environment, fast paced, free lunch, shuttles to the office from the T, breakroom with games

Cons – while fast paced is nice there is a pressure to be on your game 100% of the time, communication between groups is weak

Advice to Senior Management – improve communication between the groups

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – Catered lunches 3 days a week which are actually pretty decent, nice office space, snacks, great product which people always love to talk to you about.

Cons – There are some issues with senior and middle-management which make it a pretty uninspiring place to work. As mentioned in some other reviews, the product team seems the most affected, but engineering is also having some difficulties. In general, don't expect to have your hard work recognized, however the engineering team does seem to command a decent amount of respect.

There have been multiple re-orgs in the last year, and there are definite favorites who are treated better than others regardless of their actual talent.

It's also quite a rigid, waterfall development process, so if you want to work in a "startup like" environment, TripAdvisor isn't for you.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being oblivious to the middle management issues and work at improving the company culture. Try learning lessons from other more successful companies about how to best motivate your employees and get things done.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at TripAdvisor

Pros – -Super smart
-Has to be the leading engineering team in the web space today
-Great marketing and engineering relationship, great team work
-Office space is incredible
-Great free lunches
-Great tech support and hardware
-Very quick, speed wins attitude, means a lot projects going on at once

Cons – -Very poor senior management structure, and very political system at the 2nd/3rd tiers of the company
-Lots of power plays and controlling attitudes at the middle management level
-Lots of bureaucrats at mid manager level, weird for a supposed 'startup'
-Not a lot of attention payed to career growth and promoting top achievers- the same few people get promoted each year because they were favorites, while other positions are unnecessarily backfilled when they should be filled by internal promotions
-Pay is fair for managers, but not much over what other companies will pay

Advice to Senior Management – The company used to be a great place to work when it was truly a startup, and then a few bad apples were grandfathered through the ranks and have more or less ruined the fun, smart, and friendly company atmosphere. From what I understand, some have been demoted or left now, so maybe it's better now, but this awful political system at the top caused a landslide of quitting in the worst economy we'll ever see- so you know it was bad if so many were that desperate to get out.
Overall, I would never go back, but if I were to start over I would do it again. If not for the petty politics and a few harpies at the top of the company, this is hands down the best company you'll ever work for.

Former Employee – worked at TripAdvisor

Pros – Good reputation, fast pace, free lunch, snacks, games on site, nice people (for the most part), somewhat flexible environment for work/life balance.

Cons – No career development, no pats on the back for a job well done, you're just hassled when things aren't going 100% as planned (think "office space"). Some of the worst managers I've ever had in my life - funny since the CEO says they have a 'No a-holes' policy. Lots of throwing under the bus at this company in general. No real leadership by management which leads to decreased productivity by employees in addition to things just not getting done or being done poorly. Management doesn't listen to employees nor do they treat people equally (lots of favorites played here). These reasons are why there has been an exodus from the marketing team in 09 when there was virtually none in years prior.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees - you hired them for a reason so you should at least consider what they have to say. It shouldn't be your way or the highway.
Re-think some of your processes - speed wins often undoes itself
Be more personable
Re-think your 'no a-holes' policy - either get rid of it or get rid of the a-holes- you know who they are. Lots of managers do NOTHING all day while employees work their bums off

Current Employee – been working at TripAdvisor

Pros – First and foremost, the best reason to work at TripAdvisor is the great people here. People work hard and take their jobs and careers very seriously, but also make time to have a lot of fun together. The intersection of travel and web 2.0 is an exciting business to be in. The company's fast growth (organic growth in the U.S. and internationally, plus recent acquistions of several other travel media companies) provides good opportunities for career growth. TripAdvisor works hard to maintain its entrepeneruial "start-up" feel in the way people work, but it has the size and profitibility to offer very competitive compensation and benefits. There is a good feeling of job stability and probably further growth even in the currently difficult economic enviroment.

Cons – Some "growing pains" as the company has doubled in size each of the last several years. What used to be a great feeling of knowing everyone in the company no longer exists.

Advice to Senior Management – It is important to keep up and even increase more proactive communication with employees as the company grows - more employees, more geographies, more lines of business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend