A Relaxing But Sometimes Frustrating Environment - Software Engineer PayPal Employee Review

3.0
Jul 29, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The package is very respectable given the amount of work you do. The compensation is quite good given that you're never expected to work startup hours and the benefits are solid (healthcare, 401k matching, etc) and come with a few nice perks (gym membership, free drinks). The work/life balance is good here, and the company is strong with a known brand and isn't prone to downsizing (not a lot of lay-offs). There are also a ton of free on campus events, so if you play your cards right, you can essentially eat for free. Many of the people here have families, and this environment is very conducive to that

Cons

The company is incredibly slow and bureaucratic. Learning DOES NOT come easy here, especially with the massive amounts of poorly written legacy infrastructure bogging everybody down. Most of the time, you're learning how to deal with frustrating company-specific internal tools and processes rather than learning overall development skills that are applicable to other jobs. It's also far from a meritocracy. It's very hard to move up, and the levels are based more on your age and amount of experience rather than your actual skill. My biggest problem though is the outdated culture. The company is still struggling to adjust to a truly agile system, and a lot of the engineering base is unwilling to move from old technologies. There's a large focus on specialization here with very little emphasis on learning and growing. The company is still reeling from the old organizational structure of all of the engineers being split into QA and development, leaving it with many QA engineers who can barely write code and are unwilling to learn. There are also random company policies like internal code and hiring freezes that keep it from moving forward. The technical infrastructure is quite poor. Internal tools go down literally every day, making it very hard for developers to get work done. The code contribution process is weak overall. Version control isn't properly leveraged, a lot of "hacks" are pushed to production, code review isn't adequate a lot of the time; in short, a lot of the people here are frankly lazy and perfectly okay adding to the technical debt. There's also a lot of work that has been outsourced, which is unfortunate because outsourced code is usually completely awful and sometimes you have to stay up late to interface with the engineers overseas. Lastly, PayPal can be VERY political. There are a lot of people who would rather "play the game" instead of actually working. The word on the street is definitely true about the main San Jose campus. In short, if you're someone who's "got the fire", PayPal is NOT the place for you. The learning opportunities are sparse, and it's hard to move up (get promoted) or sideways (join a different team and/or learn something new).

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5.0
Jun 17, 2026
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Pros

Work life balance and interesting merchants

Cons

The stock price limits upside

2.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PayPal has a lot of potential. It has two very strong brands in PayPal and Venmo with significant awareness and user bases that other companies envy. There are pockets of teams that are really pushing the envelop to reimagine what PayPal and Venmo could be—especially the Venmo team—and to move with speed given the company must stay focused and not waste time with Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and so many other competitors nipping at PayPal's heels and aggressively taking market share.

Cons

While some teams are pushing to self-disrupt and are moving fast, too many teams—and I'd argue the majority of the company–are living off of PayPal's laurels from the late 2010s through the pandemic. The culture and mindset have to change for the company to remain competitive. Otherwise, they are the Titanic and they're sinking slowly. The former CEO who only last 2 years tried diversifying the company's revenue, planning for the future. But the board and its former chairman (now new CEO) felt he wasn't moving fast enough to stabilize and marketshare. Instead, the board hired the former chairman who made computers and printers at HP—another sinking ship—to lead the oldest fintech company. The loss of confidence in the leadership team and the strategy are only accelerating.

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