Pros
Expedia has a similar culture to Microsoft, it has the same office layouts, job titles, group structure, work flow and even some of the perks - like free drinks. It's a small version of Microsoft. It's great to be able to enjoy the flavor of Microsoft without being lost in the giant campus, sea of employees and countless number of products. Expedia is one giant product. One of the best way to describe Expedia is its people. You really feel the sense of community and relationship at Expedia. People know each other, and they actually talk to one another about things beyond work! This makes the however many hours working there fun, exciting and meaningful. Depends on which team you work in, travel opportunities are great. Since Expedia is a travel company with multiple offices around the world, it's a great way to see the world while working! Teams closer to the end users and business will get more chances to travel than others. Great work life balance. The working atmosphere is fairly relaxed and you are your own time manager. I like the flexibilty of working from home when I need to. This company relies communications over email, so easy to get on the computer at night to finish off some work if some things couldn't be done during the day.
Cons
Expedia packed a punch in its begining years, innovating and changing the market. Though the past few years, it seems it has lost some steam. Granted the whole travel industry is going through churn right now. Expedia made it great because it was innovating as a technology company in the travel market. Ever since it turned the focus to become a travel company, the technical side lost its momentum. Company lacks communication and knowledge retention. Upper managements don't communicate down to people and seems they can't make up their mind on what to do. Every 6 months or so, there is a re-org (some made sense and some felt like re-org for the sake of re-orging). Sometimes, changes are necessary however too often paralyzes production. Many people leave and the knowledges aren't retained because of poor documentation practise (lack of). Pay and benefits are although good, but not great. At other local high tech companies, the pay can easiliy be 20-30k more per year. If you want a steady and day-in-day-out kind of job, this is great. But if you are looking for a fast paced, constantly evolving and growing business, this isn't the place. Expedia needs to get its act together and focus, or else the #2 and the #3 will catch up. Product release cycles are too long. By the time a feature is released, either it's too late or no longer relevant. Hard to see the fruit of the labor immediately. This puts more pressure on the business to be able to see way ahead, plan and then hope that they are right. Hard to be agile.
