Pros
- Independent teams / Manager is outside the team - Modern tech stacks / Team gets to chose tech stack (unless you're in a legacy team) - Company mindset recently changed from retail to tech company - Great people. Smart, fun to work and party with. Good mix btw rock stars and normal people. Very international. - Decent pay, good equipment, opportunities to speak at conferences - Nice office locations (Berlin) - Tons of own Open Source projects, contribution to others is encouraged - Interesting problems, high-scale environments
Cons
- Everything is chaotic. There is not one process that works flawlessly, on any level. - Technology equality is preached, but some technologies are more equal than others. If you want to become a star, you have to use Scala / React.js. Java devs are belittled, even though 90% of the code in production is Java - Chaotic hiring process. Be prepared to get the same trivial coding exercise from 3 different interviewers. - Protectionism. If you want to make a career, find someone in upper management who likes you and suck up to them. Also, start smoking, it will help. - Constructive criticism is not appreciated, developers are often not listened to (outside their team). A manager is better than a dev, by definition (not unusual in a German company). - No transparency. People aren't even told what their job levels are. - Career planning is good in theory, but cumbersome in practice. Promotions can take years longer than promised.