Pros
I enjoyed the yearly trip to Amsterdam and Christmas gift, the monthly team lunches and outings, snacks in the office, hotel discounts; however if I had a choice to trade all of that and have a higher salary I would! Free snacks and team lunches don't pay the bills. I enjoyed the people I worked with (except for the managers that currently work there) and have made some lasting friendships. The health benefits and RRSP contribution were great.
Cons
-Very low Salary -Phone system that tracks everything with TV monitors on the walls (just like a call centre except our office wasn't one) -Too much tracking (multiple Google docs for tracking everything you do. You spend so much time tracking that you lose time that you could be doing actual work!). If the managers were any good they would actually be more hands on in their job to see how hard the employees work instead of being out of the office or in meetings all of the time. -The job got boring quickly and there was not many job opportunities unless you want to relocate which not everyone does. -Too much brainwashing. They really force the Kool aid down your throat and try to change who you are. If someone is quiet during a meeting and doesn't have anything to share they say you need to be more visible and try to force you to say things. In my case if I have something to say then I will say it. If not, I am not going to talk just for the sake of talking. It also works in reverse, if you speak your mind and the managers don't like what you are saying you will hear about it later. One of the values is to challenge one another yet when you do it is held against you later. This is the reason why some people don't speak up at all. I used to really enjoy working in the Toronto office at Booking.com. In the last few years, there have been a lot of management changes and the current managers are terrible. The last 6 months of my employment, in particular, were literally unbearable. The current managers micromanage, nitpick on everything you do and are completely unprofessional. They are thankless and I constantly felt undervalued. Nothing was ever good enough for them. They were quick to point fingers and make assumptions instead of listening and getting all of the information first. I would still recommend the company to others as I have heard that there are lots of job opportunities in other countries and that people actually like their jobs and managers. I have no problem with the company but I would certainly never EVER recommend anyone to work in the Toronto Office. Most unpleasant office I have ever worked in. The fact that so many people have resigned in the last few months should say it all.