Yahoo Reviews in Santa Monica, CA

Pros

Very supportive staff, great pay

Cons

Employees at Yahoo! work in cubicles. The interior is gray and purple which is pretty drab. When you work in a cubicle there really isn't any socialization so connecting with other employees can be difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership was great and very supportive

Pros

tons of hands on experience, fun corporate culture and some very nice people. You learn a ton about the industry and get to meet a lot of helpful people; great experiece.

Cons

Sometimes it could get boring and redundant. Work could get overloaded and some long hours. Disorganization sometimes and lack of guidance was a common issue. Other than that, great job.

Advice to Senior Management

I would hire more people so work is spread out more evenly and people don't get overwhelmed. Continue to have speakers and important people talk, helps build corporate culture

Pros

Overall, I worked with some great product teams at Yahoo. Great product managers and technical leads made for some very satisfying job experience.

Cons

At Yahoo, there were too many reorganizations to caused lots of distractions instead a focus on the projects. A Microsoft buyout was not healthy for the organization

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on the internal workings of the company and less on the stock price and then the products will end up speaking for themselves.

Pros

Very good, understanding employer.
Great benefits.
Work-life balance.
Knowledge Sharing.
Great co-workers.

Cons

Limited opportunities for progress.
Less than competent middle management.
Poor decision making and execution.
Perpetual reorganization that never seem to give benefit.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to employees at the lowest rungs and do that proactively.
Most of the middle management is looking out for their own best interests and not Yahoos. So you will not get good clarity.
Undertake performance based reorganization and hold management accountable for decisions.
Take exit interviews very very seriously.

Pros

Flex-time and opportunities to work from home, which are ideal for working parents. Nice fringe benefits like free coffee, snacks (in Santa Monica), soda, gym membership, etc. The brand is well-known and highly respected externally. It's nice to be a part of such a global brand.

Cons

Very little career advancement opportunities. It's so political that promotions are based more on who you know rather than what you've accomplished or how hard you work. And management is lacking in many ways. They can't manage, no matter how many management courses they take. The few good managers have already left.

Advice to Senior Management

Most of the managers are incompetent. I'd say that only about 10% of the managers are actually adequate. The rest are terrible at providing support, guidance, and smart decision-making. They care more about their own careers rather than the people, products and Yahoo! overall. It's a shame the company has become so tainted with bureaucracy, politics, in-fighting. I came to yahoo a few years ago with so much excitement and enthusiasm. But all that was killed within a few months due to the poor management, inefficiencies, disorganization, and pure chaos.

Pros

Best part about working with Yahoo is the amount of talented engineers you get to work with. I learned a lot about technology just by reading through various mailing lists where these tech-experts are educating other yahoos on the best practices. Its a casual, open work environment which helps you relax and maintain a good work-life balance.

Cons

The company has no direction. the business units does not have enough control over their engineering resources. Promotion opportunities are less as most of the business units are not faring very well. It gets worse by total lack of communication between the upper management and employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Please decide what YAHOO really is !!! is it a media company or search company ? Yahoo could be a very good place to work if they fix the senior management

Pros

Yahoo is a good place to land for a project manager if you are tired of the grind of agency work or consulting. Travel is minimal and well funded (always nice hotels, not motel 6). Culture is really hit or miss - some groups are a great close-knit group, while others - if you fell over dead, no one would notice until you didn't show up at a Sprint meeting for a couple of days. The benefits will spoil anyone - working from home is easy to do as teams are sometimes widely dispersed; getting time off was never an issue.

Cons

The internal divisions between product and engineering are debilitating and make it near impossible to get anything done. Priorities are constantly shifting and the work culture has pretty much ground to a halt with all of the drama that has gone on in 2008. It is sad - the company could do so much if the management structure and strategy was actually aligned between the disciplines.

Advice to Senior Management

Get everyone on the same page for once! Don't let the rift between engineering and product development go on any longer!

Pros

The best reasons to work at yahoo! is the boat load of benefits like free coffee, gym, etc.. In addition the exposure to learn and grow in my particular career has been great. I believe my direct manager and associates are awesome and have been great to work with.

Cons

The state of the company right now seems very uncertain and the sense of nervousness people have about the future of yahoo!. It'd be great to have a solid game plan for the company and lessen the uncertantity that we have in the company right now.

Advice to Senior Management

Get things right and be proactive in any decisions they make for the future and direction of the company.

Pros

Work environment is laid back and people are very friendly. Management is open to training their employees new skills and allows them to pick projects that they may have an interest in. Time was reasonably flexible (can come in a little later to leave later) and was not micro-managed.

Cons

As a contractor, did not get many benefits that full time employees got. Was hard to be promoted to full time due to what we were told as "budget reasons," though many of us were welcomed back after contracts expired.

Advice to Senior Management

When passing down new information or important instructions, make sure it's clear that all your employees get the message. Often times we had to learn from each other when there was changes.

Pros

By far the best reason to work at Yahoo! is the people -- I've met some of the smartest, coolest people I've ever worked with here. The compensation and benefits are great, which definitely helps make up for some of the stress. There is a good work/life balance and a lot of flexibility -- as long as you get your work done, it doesn't matter if you work from home, work flex hours, etc. It's also a relaxed atmosphere (flip flops and shorts aren't out of the norm as long as you're not in sales), and there are some nice perks like free snacks and premium coffee.

Cons

Where do I begin? It's been a complete and utter roller coaster here lately. Morale is between not good and awful depending on the day. Senior management seems out of touch. Headcount and support are severely lacking (I can't emphasize this enough). The wrong people get promoted, and the right people don't get retained. This place is hemorrhaging employees (and their jobs don't get filled, someone else just has to absorb their responsibilities). Barely a month goes by without a reorg.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop promoting the wrong people, start communicating, get your heads out of the sand. I think Jerry is a good guy at heart, but I don't know that he's the right guy for the job.