Booking.com

Great, supportive management (in my case anyway) with regular catch-ups to see how you're progressing.

Streamlined promotion process with clear competencies and expectations outlined to help you progress.

Company listens to employees. It conducts an annual anonymous survey with feedback for the leadership team and management. Last year, it invested in learning and development; this year, it invested in benefits and is trying to be more transparent with strategy as a result of feedback.

Good benefits (pension matching, Booking.com discount, €300 to spend online, bonuses).

Modern tech stack (in my bit of the business – see cons).

Always pursuing better engineering practices (with input from devs).

Mostly relaxed and fun culture – no dress code and you can joke around with colleagues (obviously within reason, but I've yet to offend anybody). Parties are held twice a year with fun events for Christmas, Halloween, etc.

Good work/life balance is encouraged, with a focus on good mental health. Managers don't think you're a better employee just because you work longer hours. I was discouraged from it by one manager because they don't want people to burn out.

• The internal IT services can be pretty meh. The internet connectivity can be a bit iffy, and we run into problems with accessing different accounts (linked learning, email, Safari Books).

• Internet issues can block you for an hour or so max; the access stuff can be fixed within a couple of hours if you report it.

• State of the codebase/tech stack varies depending on what part of the business you work in. It's good in my area, bad in others.

• You don't get pay raises (aside from adjustments for inflation) unless you're promoted, but they do regularly promote people who meet the competencies.

• In my bit of the business, we've had some team instability. Mine have been changed around every six months or so (when a lead/product owner leaves or new ones start, teams can be merged together or split up). Whenever a team changes, they do try to keep people together though.

• Culture can be a touch corporate at times with ethics meetings and the like. Sometimes feel there isn't much of a social aspect (get-togethers, team building), but that partially depends on the team/department.

Great job. Line managers, thanks for being supportive and open to chat. Leadership team, you felt a bit distant last year, and I wasn't sure what you were up to, but this has improved. Thanks for being willing to listen. Budget for team-building stuff would be nice!