Booking.com

I recently left Booking after working there for almost a year in our Seattle office. However, I have nothing but great things to say about this company. The reason I left was because of some restructuring that heavily impacted our office, and I felt like we lost a lot of what made our culture there so great. But that doesn't change my outlook on the company.

As an employee, I always felt respected, trusted, and valued by management and the company in general. I felt like I had the ability to make a noticeable impact on an enormous company and that the work I did never went unappreciated.

Booking is one of the few places that I can say with confidence genuinely cares about each individual working for them, and they prove that by investing in their people, listening to feedback, and following up with any concerns. They treat their people like, well, people, instead of just some cogs in a machine.

The company itself is very flat, which I loved. The leadership is really involved, and the managers, at least in my experience, always had their team's best interests in mind and did their best to communicate everything with us. There was a good level of transparency compared to other companies, although there is still room for improvement in that area.

The work I did felt challenging, fun, and exciting. It was right where I wanted to be, where I was directly making an impact on our products and our customers. There is a lot of opportunity to move around quite easily and get experience in a lot of different aspects of the company. In general, I didn't feel like there was a lack of growth opportunities, and I felt that movement was always encouraged.

Perhaps the greatest parts of Booking are its culture and its environment. It's young, fast-paced, diverse, and really welcoming. There is a lot going on all the time, and there are opportunities to meet and connect with people from all over the world.

BAM, their annual company party, is a great example of the company's effort in maintaining its culture and morale. They even offer to bring you to Amsterdam once a quarter.

Overall, I really miss working here. If it weren't for the restructuring that happened to our office, I would have stayed for the foreseeable future. I really enjoyed the people I worked with, my managers, our office, our happy hours/office gatherings, the people I met, and everything else in between. If you get an opportunity to work here, take it.

There really aren't a ton of cons that I can think of.

The biggest gripe I had was working with Perl and sometimes feeling like some of the technologies used were a little dated. It was never a dealbreaker, though, because there is room to grow in other areas as well.

Another con for me personally was our office mostly moving out of Seattle, but I understand that things like this could happen anywhere due to business necessities. I think the company handled the transition well enough and was generous throughout, but maybe could have provided a little more warning.

Keep doing what you're doing.

Continue investing in your people, maintaining presence, and staying involved.

Don't lose the values and culture that makes Booking what it is today.