Core principles are for show off - Software Engineer III PayPal Employee Review

2.0
Jan 25, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

**Used** to be a very good company. Work life balance decent.

Cons

1. New hires get more salary even with lower experience. 2. Lot of re-orgs hamper your growth. 3. Rules are on paper and managers or directors apply rules according to their own choice - be it for promotion or project assignments. 4. Fire culture. Not given prior info to improve performance, rather people get fired at whim of management. 5. As lot of management folks hired from outside over last 4-5 years, the culture has gone for a toss because of them carrying their bad legacy from past companies. 6. Referrals - lot of nepotism, lack of transparency and fake rejection points. Because the managers and directors all want to earn referral bonus. My experience - candidates with very good interviews rejected without reasonable explanation, referrals not getting the calls most of the times, but if you apply in LinkedIn directly, you get the call for same job. 7. Managers don't help in your career growth. Either you become politically active to know what projects you should take or you are doomed. 8. Promotions very tough for existing employees. If you have other company offer letter, you get promo easily at cost of other loyal employees who did not give interviews outside. 9. Core principles - only INCLUSION is what is trending around the world matters here now. 10. Not uniformly judgement to all. 11. Even Directors bar a few have biased views and dont think about people working under them. Selfish.

Explore other reviews about PayPal

5.0
Dec 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fun and exciting workplace. They are really invested in keeping the engineers happy

Cons

none at all yet. Fairly new

2.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PayPal has a lot of potential. It has two very strong brands in PayPal and Venmo with significant awareness and user bases that other companies envy. There are pockets of teams that are really pushing the envelop to reimagine what PayPal and Venmo could be—especially the Venmo team—and to move with speed given the company must stay focused and not waste time with Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and so many other competitors nipping at PayPal's heels and aggressively taking market share.

Cons

While some teams are pushing to self-disrupt and are moving fast, too many teams—and I'd argue the majority of the company–are living off of PayPal's laurels from the late 2010s through the pandemic. The culture and mindset have to change for the company to remain competitive. Otherwise, they are the Titanic and they're sinking slowly. The former CEO who only last 2 years tried diversifying the company's revenue, planning for the future. But the board and its former chairman (now new CEO) felt he wasn't moving fast enough to stabilize and marketshare. Instead, the board hired the former chairman who made computers and printers at HP—another sinking ship—to lead the oldest fintech company. The loss of confidence in the leadership team and the strategy are only accelerating.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All