Netflix

Great base pay.

Some of the engineers are really smart and know what they are doing.

Free food and a well-stocked kitchen.

Good benefits, including unlimited vacation.

Stock is doing great!

Hackday is always great and something to look forward to.

• Innovation is dying at this company. If you compare what the product was in 2011 versus now, they are mostly playing with video playback in the UI and minor features. This is probably because everyone wants to keep their job and have as many projects to continue.

• The company does a lot of A/B testing, even for minor text changes. I'm glad they are not in the hardware business, else they would have ruined the company. The product team seems good, but I'm not sure if they know what is right and don't have a gut feeling on anything.

• Engineering teams compete with each other to build tools. Sometimes the work done for nine months is thrown away because another team built a tool with cutting-edge technology.

• Freedom and responsibility exist, but it all depends on your leader and how much they allow you to exercise it.

• NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome within teams.

• Managers are sometimes a pain and always want to build their 'own' team with 'own' people, which discourages existing teams.

• If you are looking for growth in the team, be careful of which team you are joining.

• Favoritism exists. If a manager is really bad with employees but good with their boss, they will get promoted. 360 reviews only matter from peers and not from whom you manage.

• You can't raise questions on why we are doing this. If you are not aligned with the manager's vision, sorry, but you will get axed soon based on grounds of technical incompetency.

• They try lots of recommendation A/B tests and merch logic, but they are not sure if people will watch the title or not.

Ultimately, they need to realize they are a streaming company which has value in only one thing: Content. If you build a great product but the content is not effective, you are relying on the product and not the content to sell. If rivals catch up on the product, it's an issue.

Hire people who have long-term vision and who question the authority on why we are doing this, and do not encourage those who align with you. We don't want to see another Qwikster debacle.