Tripadvisor

The people are the biggest pro. I worked as an engineer here for a couple of years with very hard-working and fun people.

Management was open about the direction of the company and each employee's role in its future. We all put in a lot of time and effort, and we were recognized for going the extra mile. We tried to innovate and put out a solid product to satisfy our customers.

After the acquisition and the founders left, things started to change for the worse.

The communication from upper management ceased, as did the incentive to give extra effort.

New management made no attempt to get to know any of the employees. We began to more closely imitate our competitors when building new features, and it always felt like we were a few steps behind.

This is not a terrible place to work, but if you're an engineer looking to use cutting-edge technologies, host meet-ups, release open-sourced projects, contribute to a useful tech blog (like the competitors), or climb the corporate ladder -- this is probably not the place for you.

Communicate more and be more open to taking ideas from employees outside of management. Recognize the people going above-and-beyond. Focus more on how well problems are being solved, not how fast they're being solved.