Taboola Reviews

Pros

Nice culture: smart people, relaxed about how people manage their responsibilities, open door policy with management. Industrious and hard working without pressure or people checking what time others are coming and going — so refreshing. The company spends freely on making office life comfortable and happy. They also invest heavily in training, & professional development. Want to fly cross country for a week of... face time with a team you collaborate with in a different office? Easiest approval ever, flights, hotels and all. The product, engineers, data, AI... very solid. It’s not google or Facebook, but outside of FAANG this the most credible player out there in terms of tech assets in hand. Bottom line: they’re chill, smart, and have a good product. Nice place to work.

Cons

Base pay could be higher, but it’s livable and not below market, just not at the top of market either. Commission structure is a little funky, but I’ve never been anywhere where it was fantastic and beloved by the people in sales roles.

Advice to Management

Keep it up, excited for the future.

Pros

- Good place to learn and develop at an entry level - Cool office - Work life balance (job isn't that hard) - Great if you're trying to chill

Cons

- Compensation is ~50% below market and impossible to renegotiate - No visibility or input into promotion process - Easy to coast, difficult to find new challenges - Incredibly high turnover (90% in 1 year on the team I was hired onto) Company has made a clear decision to prioritize "culture" as in parties, office spending, SKO over investment in HR resources, career pathing, and fair compensation. High... turnover is a direct correlation. When I confronted management about this dynamic, I was told that I was correct - under paying and constant employee churn is the company strategy, and that it's been working so far

Advice to Management

Long term growth is predicated on high quality talent. Taboola's growth has been slowing as turnover increases - this is not a coincidence. You have the bones of a great company and a great culture, stop under paying and tolerating high turnover and achieve real greatness.

Pros

Free food, annual sales conference in a unique location, CEO is very present in day to day operations and interacts with lower level employees. Fantastic group of managers on the media sales and account management teams.

Cons

Majority of the executive team admittedly have zero knowledge of media and are completely unqualified to be in their roles, as they focus almost exclusively on the Publisher side of the business. Over the past year the culture has become toxic in the New York office, driven primarily by a few specific individuals, including the CRO who has a history of making comments that are both offensive and have made many... employees feel uncomfortable. Pay is well below industry standard, particularly on the media sales side, which has resulted in a lot of turnover recently.

Advice to Management

In order to continue growing the business 1) bring in new executive leaders who have an established background in media 2) pay your employees at the very least to be in line with the rest of the industry and 3) focus on keeping your more tenured employees motivated and happy in order to retain them

Pros

1) Lots of free food 2) OK base salary 3) SKOs in interesting locations 4) Shrewd business people

Cons

This is all just my opinion, but I feel like there was a big difference in what my hiring manager told me my job would be compared to what my job actually was. I was hired as a solutions-seller, and I was looking forward to being a problem solver for my clients, but it was very hard to work with big brands or agencies because I didn't have a product that checked the agency's boxes. Maybe this has changed. All of... the deals I did close were with small companies, and of those, many of them had a difficult time making the platform work for them, which lead to "churn and burn." The agency deals I did close had a hard time scaling because, and I never had support I needed to be successful from leadership or my account management team. Sometimes, I felt uncomfortable with how I was being asked to position the product, because in my opinion, it felt like too much of a stretch, or as if I was encouraged not to be transparent with my clients. On the sales side, everything seemed to be tracked to a degree that felt intrusive and overbearing. Obviously, prospecting is important, but there here there was a massive emphasis on outreach using mail merges, email campaigns, and in my opinion, I felt like I was forced to send out spam all day. In my opinion, it seemed like although Taboola might like more money from big brands and agencies, my guess is that they make so much money from DR advertisers and arbitrage publishers, that being brand safe or offering a video solution that has a competitive AVOC or viewability doesn't seem to be a priority. That said, the company is massively successful - there are a lot of articles about Taboola that talk about it being a "billion dollar unicorn." If I were an engineer, I think working at Taboola would be great. But if you are a sales person, just be aware there is a big focus on outreach volume versus nurturing client relationships. I tried to offer feedback, and I know other colleagues agreed, but HR nor my manager seemed to want to help. I think they knew of the problems, but just didn't know the solution.

Advice to Management

Taboola is a billion dollar company, so whatever you're doing must be working. Good luck!

Pros

Lots of free food There is a great office culture, but mostly for newer employees. The company has a great base of talent from years ago when perspective candidates were well vetted. The product is doing well and has great long term viability. The CEO is passionate about the business and industry

Cons

There is zero female presence in the higher ranks, and the few females who move up do it by knowing their role. The company has grown very quickly, and to meet the needs, the quality of new talent has dropped severely. Good talent is leaving and being replaced by friends of friends and people who come in late, play ping pong all day or goof off on FB, and then leave early. HR is unhelpful and you will get... blackballed for voicing your concerns. The idea is that Taboola is the "Google of Israel" and you should feel lucky to be part of the company. There is rampant favoritism. If you want to get a new position in the company, you need to fight and scratch, but if you're Israeli, you just ask for it, and you'll get it. Company refuses to IPO and openly mocks the question every time it's asked. Zero diversity above the entry level positions. Three years ago, this company was worthwhile, but at this point if you're a hard, passionate worker looking to do something amazing, go elsewhere.

Advice to Management

Stopping trying to be cool and have themed events and parties every week, and start hiring quality people. Create an HR channel where employees can voice concerns without the fear of getting in trouble.

Pros

Taboola has definitely made a name for itself in the adtech industry, and so it makes a great addition to your resume and will open many doors for you. Stay for just a year, take all that you can, and get the **** out of there.

Cons

Taboola does not care for its employees. It pays the minimum market rate. It has one of the highest turnover rates- across teams, people stay for only a year. There's no company culture at Taboola. Its only aim is to make revenue. HR does not seem to care about retaining employees, but chooses to spend their resources on hiring new folks who eventually become disappointed and leave. Taboola treats their employees... like another number that can be easily replaced. Heck, the COO Eldad publicly addressed the entire company during a kickoff as “paychecks”. My friends had to seek help for their mental health because of the stress they’ve endured working at Taboola. Taboola does not care about employees’ individual growth, and you won’t be promoted unless you’re Jewish.

Advice to Management

Invest in your employees and build a company culture so that Taboola can be a place that employees "may like" to work. Replace the entire HR team.

Pros

Lots of room for growth, inward mobility, they only hire kind/smart people (not a toxic type of office) stocked kitchen, amazing office (located in flatiron) they actually care about diversity--and are consciously trying to hire more woman/POC/and LGBT

Cons

No Cons. This is the best work culture I've experienced.

Advice to Management

Continue to keep Taboolas start up culture strong!

Pros

This company has everything that you would want in an employer. Empowered employees, great environment (especially the offices), good management and leadership, a real focus on hard technology and good pay / benefits.

Cons

Not a lot of downside here. The only thing I can say is that if you are looking for a place to "float", this isn't the place for you. Taboola asks people to work hard.