Pros
The People, The People, The People...to start with. Great attitudes all around, in all of the departments i worked with. There is a culture of hiring people not only for their intelligence and acumen, also that they are a good fit for the company, which leads to a very fun, yet demanding experience. There is so much to learn from this type of a culture, and that is exactly what happened with me over the years.
Being part of the TripAdvisor family is also a great plus and I'm not talking about all of the bells and whistles that any established Boston company, or well funded start up has, but it leads to all sorts of possibilities for horizontal and vertical movement, which does, contrary to other reviews, very much exist. You may start of in customer service and wind up in your dream job doing something completely different. You may work on SOA engineering problems, but want to transition to mobile, those types of conversations are welcomed and encouraged. Grated you need to earn it, but once you have, they want to keep you happy.
The office is great and well located, but that is just another ones of those perks of an established company. There is flexibility, to a point, in your work days, which personally i enjoy. The goal is to be available during core business hours for easy communication, but life happens, and you need to work from home on occasion, or leave early and catch up later, all of which are understood.
Lastly, FlipKey has become part of the Vacation Rentals arm of TA, which has expanded the number of good people to work with, solving different problems and gaining experience in different technologies. (yes i was an engineer there). And as a former reviewer already stated, my soul is very much in tact.
Cons
There is a steep learning curve, and many things have changed over time, as is the case when you go from startup to successful business to being part of a larger organization, but with that comes opportunity, so it is up to you. You need to be able to lead your own charge sometimes on assignments. If that is scary to you, it may be difficult, if you're a self-starter, this could be a pro.
A more succinct direction from management the start of the year or the quarter would be great and does not always exist. Not increase revenue by N%, but we're going to tackle X, Y Z projects b/c they help the company in a defined way. The vacation rental landscape is evolving, so not always simple, but should always continue to be a goal.
