Yahoo

The best reason to work at Yahoo! is very simple: the people who work there. I haven't worked before at a place with so many bright, genuine, and good people. Many of them I now consider friends, some very close friends, and feel genuine loss when I see them leave.

The daily interactions with my co-workers are the primary reason I have stayed with Yahoo! so long.

In addition, the company offers a broad spectrum of products and projects, and allows a decent flexibility to switch between teams or projects. That is if one is inclined to do so.

It has definitely helped me broaden my scope of experience, while still feeling excited and engaged about new opportunities.

The organization still feels very convoluted, and there is little visibility into the decision-making process, at least in many teams. This is certainly not true for all.

In general, my experience has been that most decisions are made in and by the "Product" team, which also likes to call themselves "Product Owners." It has always struck me as odd to operate in such a way, since the company is striving to be an innovator.

It begs the question: shouldn't it be the talented people who work there who make the right product decisions?

The "Product Team" should be the sum of the people working on a project, with shared ownership and responsibilities. It is one of those details I have always found the most limiting and frustrating in delivering a great experience for the many Yahoo! users out there.

My advice to senior management would be to focus more on their job, while I will focus on mine and deliver as best as I can. Ideally, senior management should be focused on appropriately staffing and budgeting business opportunities and ensuring the right people are doing their job. All too often, I found senior management engaged on a level of detail that was overbearing. In the end, this slows everything down and leads to products that were designed, not by the most qualified people, but rather by those who were mostly interested in their personal career benefits and catering to some people in senior management. Again, this is certainly not the rule, but something one will be able to observe when staying at Yahoo! for some time.