Not the Airbnb it was pre-IPO - Staff Software Engineer Airbnb Employee Review

Airbnb's mission of creating a world where anyone can belong anywhere strongly resonates with me. I'm excited by the opportunity to build products that operate at global scale and directly impact millions of users. My background in full-stack engineering, distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, and AI-powered applications aligns well with Airbnb's focus on innovation, reliability, and exceptional user experiences. I am particularly attracted to Airbnb's engineering culture, emphasis on ownership, and commitment to solving complex technical challenges while delivering meaningful value to hosts, guests, and communities worldwide.

One challenge of working at Airbnb is the complexity that comes with operating a global platform at scale. Engineering teams must balance reliability, performance, compliance, and user experience across many markets and stakeholders. While this can make development and decision-making more complex, it is also one of the aspects that makes the work technically interesting and professionally rewarding.

- Friendly and inviting environment - Inclusive - Autonomy

- Poor training (gaps exist in workflows, workflows are tailored to senior agents only and not new joiners) - Metrics (discussed briefly, but never something emphasized until it's too late) - Low pay (you're criminally being underpaid for this role and it's responsibilities despite the company being massive) - False expectations (be okay with metrics that were closed to meeting, but suddenly, cutting you loose without any advance notice)