Groupon

Good culture, events, and activities. A nice kitchen with loads of junk snacks.

If you are an engineer and looking for long-term prospects, this is not a place you want to be.

Lots of politics and bureaucracy. No matter how good you are, if you are not on good terms with higher management, forget about promotion.

Once you join, you will quickly realize that SDE1, SDE2, and SDE3 are all internally software engineers. Recruiters sell SDE3 as a senior engineer while hiring. SDE4 is actually a senior engineer. Also, don't be surprised if you find SDE3s earning more than SDE4s. Your compensation might also vary based on the team you are joining.

You will be offered bonus and stocks as part of your CTC, but it's wise not to consider them at all. Groupon stock keeps reaching new lows.

For bonuses, if you are really lucky, you might get 30-40% of the amount mentioned. Bonus calculation, which compromises company and individual performance, is flawed. Company performance takes precedence over individual performance; it's not distributed 50-50. For example, if the company's performance is 50% and yours is 100%, you will only get 100% of 50% (not 75%).

Managers and business organizations change frequently. It's not uncommon to have 3-4 managers over a year. There's no solid engineering plan in place. No roadmaps, not clear transparency. The S-team focuses only on teams that make money for the business; all other teams are treated as B-teams.

My personal view - Groupon is a nice place to be for the short term but definitely not for a long-term perspective.