TripAdvisor Reviews

I worked at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good collegues, friendly, relax working environment

Cons – Bit show in decision making
Change a lot

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Unlike their peer tech companies (Amazon, Google, Facebook...), TripAdvisor has the flexibility to allow people to move into new roles. If you don't like what you're doing, you can talk to folks and try out a new role. Engineers are regularly encouraged to rotate through other teams to get new perspectives and ways to work. In some cases, the movement is through to non-engineering departments. Again, unlike most places, TripAdvisor works to prevent the "round hole/square peg" problem.

Cons – It is a little intimidating to work with this many smart folks. You have to play at the top of your game. I would also prefer the office to be in a cooler location. Then again, we're outgrowing this space, so perhaps we will move.

Advice to Senior Management – In some small elements, shift from a fast-follower to being perceived as thought leaders.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Nicely designed environment, beautiful salt water fish tank, free food & drinks (if that's what your going for in a career move), some (SOME) really good talent, useful website and excellent Iphone app.

Cons – Company projects itself one way, but internally acts very differently. Hugely political, so plan to play the game and it's not always nice. Roadblocks everywhere. Very poor to no leadership. Creativity killer. So quiet most days (w 200ish people), I used to call it the morgue. No objectives or plan laid out, just day to day work, nothing to work towards. No collaboration, no communication. Non-competitive salary (I make a lot more now that I have left).

Advice to Senior Management – Lead. Inspire. Motivate. Manage. Like you've been hired to do. Recognize the talents and assets on your team, and tap those. Respect the members of your team. Take your ego down a few notches so you can actually see who is working for you. Don't (repeatedly) blow people off. Everyone's time is valuable, not just yours. Recognize that people come w skills and experience, so let them use them. LISTEN once in awhile.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than a year

Pros – Excellent benefits and compensation.
Nice perks, like free lunch three days a week, personal travel reimbursements, personal concierge services and onsite fitness and other activities (like chair massages, cooking classes).
Things move quickly and there is the opportunity to make an impact.
A growing company with lots of opportunity. There are more things that need to be done then people to do them so there is always an opportunity to raise you hand and ask to get involved with projects you are interested in.

Cons – Sometimes disorganized and chaotic.
Informal approval processes and centralized decision making can sometimes cause delays.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at TripAdvisor full-time

Pros – GREAT food
Smart, talented people to work with
Good compensation
Very profitable, popular brand
Looks good on your resume

Cons – Politics
Turf battles between departments
Discourages innovation, runs like a factory
Blame-game culture, caste system
Executives have big egos, total job security, huge bonuses - regardless of ability
Little respect for levels below VP - regular accusations of incompetence. Senior tech people seem to get fired regularly
Few opportunities for growth or promotion
HR is impotent

As a place to work, TripAdvisor has lost its appeal, especially since the split from Expedia.

Advice to Senior Management – Show some respect for the people who do the work. Be more accepting of different approaches.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Free food/snacks/drinks
- Good pay
- Solid company performance
- For now, still a good name to have on the resume (good time to get out and look!)

Cons – - The environment is getting more TOXIC and OPPRESSIVE by the day
 - Incompetent second level mgt running the company into the ground
– worst leadership I’ve seen in my entire career
- Hyper-critical and focused on unnecessary details instead of big picture issues
 - Fear-based management style
 - All decisions, big and small, are based on consensus
– take forever to finalize and are usually make watered-down ineffective changes
 - Being a jerk is encouraged and accepted behavior.
- Unfriendly, unprofessional and rude - starts at the top, and has trickled down to all levels.
- What the company seems to be from the outside and what they say in the interview process is opposite of what it actually is: there are tail-chasing inefficiencies everywhere you look, unrealistic goals with robot-like expectations and short-sighted innovation.
- Most employees have become complacent and passion-less. Personality, smiles or laughter is practically non-existent. This is an unhappy place to work.

Advice to Senior Management – If this were an easy solution, the best people in the company wouldn’t be leaving in droves in this economy and with all the perks, pay and benefits. The company is a dysfunctional, tangled mess with a dismal future. Maybe start by scrapping the second level mgt and hire some less ego-inflated executives that have a track record of managing well (note: I did not say “micro” managing well) and making solid decisions that actually make sense. Wake up and appreciate & trust your talent. Then start innovating and create an actual product roadmap of your own (vs solely riding the coattails of Facebook). It is way too late to make the same “safe” decisions that have kept you going the past decade. Stop being so smug and closed minded – if you were actually as smart as you think you are the company wouldn’t be in the embarrassing state its in! The rot on the inside can only be hidden from the outside world for so long.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – -Great perks
-Very competitive pay
-Lots of career options
-Strong and smart managment team
-Challenging work
-Strong HR team who are very connected to the business and always approachable

Cons – -be careful as we grow not to be too process oreinted - it will slow us down.
-invest more money and resources into learning and development - it's good but could be great

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work. Keep treating employee's as your #1 asset - we won't let you down. We need to keep competitive with excellent benefit programs and perks to help retain top talent. Be careful not to become too procress oriented, with the new management and leadership team this can happen, be cautious. Keep up the speed wins mantra and invest in promoting our culture consistenly on a global level.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - great benefits/perks
- catered lunch
- gives back to the community
- smart people
- awesome product

Cons – - HR team is a joke. talk about the most useless group in the company. if you tell your HR rep something be prepared for the entire company to know. The leaders of this group are the worst i have ever seen
- Managers who can't manage.
- Lead by fear and intimidation
- Speed wins isn't real. Everything takes forever to get done.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop promoting people because you like them. Not everyone should be a manager or a leader. This was an amazing company years ago. Talk about going down the drain.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Great people. The interview process is through and only the best get hired.
- Though TripAdvisor is focused on travel, they've got project involving mobile, and social. They also have a very scalable web site. Plenty of technology to keep an engineer interested

Cons – - Very rigid. Many talented people leave because they have an approach that doesn't match with managements.
- Very focused on LOEs. Leaves little room for collaboration.
- PM have a lot of authority. Engineering has a much smaller voice.

Advice to Senior Management – The company has to be wiling to accept different personality types to grow.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at TripAdvisor full-time for more than a year

Pros – decent salary
some fun co workers
generally flexible management

Cons – incompetence at many levels of management
"speed wins" is a huge lie
every day the place is getting more and more political
no more innovation, very close to stagnation
HR is useless
no real vision
not necessarily the best place to feel engaged and working on exciting stuff
culture of pointing fingers, not really interested in learning from mistakes first figure out who to blame.
the TripAdvisor for Business side of the business is a complete mess of politics, incompetence, and goal less paddling. everyone is trying to be out for themselves, no real team work. suck up to your boss and however retarded ways they might work. management go back to school and learn about basic "organizational behavior" may be you will figure out a way to fix things up.

Advice to Senior Management – what happened to you folks? why is this company falling apart (people wise)? why have you stopped taking risks and trying to go and do some real innovative work. stop talking and start doing. "Speed Wins" doesnt seem to exist. some really great people are leaving your company, figure out ways to keep them engaged and provide them with a real vision.
close down T4B and re-organize that side of the business with better goals and better people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company