OpenTable

Interesting work and conveniently located. That is about where it ends.

Are you an engineer? Are you looking to use your talents to build great products, and receive recognition and reward for your hard work? Then you'd better look elsewhere. Go to Google, Facebook, or countless other technology companies which value their engineers. These are fundamentally technology driven companies, and OpenTable is a sales/marketing driven organization. Engineers are simply cogs in the wheel, and are easily replaceable in the eyes of management.

They just don't do performance-based compensation at all. Sure, management has received about $20 million each in stock option based compensation, but the rules are different for everyone else within the company. Even for the engineers who actually create the product that is making management so extraordinarily wealthy.

There is no individual recognition whatsoever, unless you make a mistake which costs the company money. Then they will hold an all hands meeting to place blame on the engineer who made the mistake. If you create a product which generates millions in revenue, not a word is said. There is no bonus structure at all. Work as hard as you possibly can, and still there is no bonus. There is absolutely no incentive at all for hard work within this organization. You work your butt off and management gets rich, and that's pretty much how it works around here.

There is no opportunity to advance within the Engineering department either. All the team leads have been there 6+ years and aren't going anywhere. Promotions and even recognition are not lacking in any other department within the company, but they are an extreme rarity within Engineering.

I want to reiterate to any talented engineers out there -- if you want to see your talents appreciated and rewarded, you are better off looking elsewhere.

Follow the example of so many other technology companies—ie Google, Facebook, Microsoft. Reward your top talent. Create a bonus incentive for performance. Give recognition to employees who deserve it. Stop giving the company's money away to management in the form of massive stock option grants, and investors and the media are starting to take notice. It's really becoming excessive.