Pros: I like tropical weather, and Bangkok is a great city.

Cons: Agoda is claiming to be lean and agile – what a joke! That's just for marketing purposes and to attract talent. In fact, Agoda is losing a lot of good and talented backend people (and bookings) every month. Why? This is hell wrapped up in shiny cellophane. The working environment is just pathetic – huge technical debt, no collaboration between teams, no visibility whatsoever of what's going on, daily production escalations, bureaucracy, and bad management practices. Everyone's little interests are their own KPIs. Product management is basically owning the backend team and development, while backend management is weak and almost dysfunctional. Guess who made sure the current and previous technical management is so weak? Dev management is absent, as they sit all day in meetings and are occupied with sending emails. That means it's all about product, features, and micromanagement. So boring! Nobody makes any architectural decisions, and there's a huge technical debt that slows development and has created a lot of frustration. Developers don't really have access to technologies (Kafka, Cassandra, etc.). If you need something, just send an email and wait. Things that should take days take weeks. Does any of this sound lean? This code-monkeyism approach is a long tradition here. Developers are at the bottom of the food chain and are replaced yearly. Others make sure they get the yearly bonuses on time! Developers – beware!

Pros: Bangkok is great. The multi-cultured environment is fun.

Cons: Stay away! No, seriously! This is not a place for talented people, and juniors joining are basically ruined by learning worse practices. Here, it's all about emails, meetings, and micropolitics. I worked here for over a year, coming from a strong technical and innovative background, to find a bad working culture, bureaucracy, tribalism, and code monkeys. Development is practically stopped due to bad management decisions and daily production issues. The salary differences are just a disgrace. Local, decent, hardworking developers are paid peanuts, while great innovations are intercepted by young and ambitious mid-level US managers and product owners, recruited by their fellows to basically take the credit while doing politics and waiting for the yearly bonus. Some of the mid-management are stuck here for a few years, probably afraid to go back to the market – and for a good reason. Agoda is a bad line on your CV, assuming you're coming from a western IT market. Believe me, I have to find a lot of excuses while interviewing now. Sad to see a company built by the hands of the great CEO Robert Rosenstein becoming a swamp full of day-job opportunists working hard on failing the employees!

Pros: High salary. New technology. Decent office, PC, office stuff. Located in the center of Bangkok. Divergent environment.

Cons: Time constraint, as the company is a 24/7 online business. Internal politics.