Booking.com

• Very international environment, with many smart people from around the world.
• Good compensation and benefits.
• Support for you and your family with relocation and paperwork.
• Many opportunities for quick career growth (if you want it).
• Very good office location.
• Good office facilities, cafeterias, cheap lunches, free snacks, and fruits.
• Many projects to choose from (depends on a manager).
• Agile attitude without too much methodological nonsense.
• Flexible working hours (not for everyone).
• Various events at the office.
• Hotel discounts.

PS Things might have changed since 2016.

When people scream "Booking can destroy your life!" on this and other websites, it's not an exaggeration.

If you cross the company (and you won't even know it at the time), the retaliation will be absolutely insane. The abuse I experienced during and after my employment is unbelievable, and to this day I'm afraid to share the details publicly.

Before Booking, I was a traveller and a developer. Now I'm unemployed for almost 3 years, with no opportunity to lead a normal life at all.

The level of cynicism is what makes Booking special, compared to other giant companies. Your colleagues will write blog posts about "empathy" and "kindness" while simultaneously helping to turn every day of your life into a nightmare, both online and offline.

Once you are "The Enemy," there are no limits. They will mock any illness or disability you or your family members had. All of your internet searches, social media posts, online purchases, emails, etc., will be presented in some negative light and used against you.

Even if you've been a good colleague and a friend all this time, the "Ministry of Truth" will make sure nobody believes you (popular fairy tale cover stories for employees leaving abruptly are burnout and depression). In the end, you won't be able to prove a thing - people aren't so stupid to say your name explicitly while abusing you. Any supporters will be silenced and any friendships destroyed. The negative effects will continue long after you've been forced to quit. To be fair, they will give you a good-bye bonus, to make sure you have enough money to move out of the country, if you are an expat.

It's a five-star company if money is all you're after, but a zero-star company if you want to have a meaningful life in the process. You can succeed if you disconnect your private and work life completely. No personal devices, accounts, conversations, or phone calls at the office. No friendships at work. No work in your free time. Be a good 9-to-5 citizen and everything will be fine.

I'm aware how different this sounds from the official company mantra about openness, care, and inclusiveness. The company has deep roots with some rich folklore and is well-known for its parties, but the start-up days are long gone. What's left is propaganda and a shiny image.

Don't trust that image: Booking is a multi-billion giant and has enough money to do anything it wants with your life, including taking away your most fundamental rights to privacy, safety, and security. Most likely it won't happen to you, but it can. Be aware.

Stop treating people as biologically active resources, with a dataset instead of a brain, and be clear about the work contract.

Tell all new hires what I wrote about separating private and work life.

Be sure to tell them:

• Anything they do on their work laptop belongs to the company forever. Anything they type, any file they ever created or copied. Repeat until they fully understand the concept.

• All web traffic is collected and analyzed (this shouldn't be a surprise).

• The company can record any private conversation at the office at any time.

• If an employee takes their laptop home, the security department is allowed to scan and break into the home network or personal devices.

• Any personal relationships at the office are strongly discouraged.

• The company keeps personal dossiers on some employees (a "background check"?).

Stop promoting the culture and values the contract explicitly prohibits. Don't promote "sharing", for example, and then prohibit the use of social media. Don't talk about flexibility and then deny an employee the ability to work remotely for a few days per year.

Be sure to explain to new hires where those famous religious decisions come from (hint: they are just arbitrary).

Don't ever, ever use the word "trust" in your career ads or any promotional materials, or talks. This is beyond being cynical.

Advice to new hires:

The company is about one thing and one thing only: the number of bookings per unit of time. The sooner you learn it, the better your career will be. Forget about internal tools, or any other project which does not increase that number at least indirectly.

If you become an enemy, leave quickly. You can try and talk to management to help you solve the problem, but I wouldn't count on it. They have bonuses too.