I joined Expedia about 7 years ago and I was thrilled to be part of such a dynamic travel environment. I really pushed myself on daily basis to learn something new on the job. After 3 months or so , I became really good at my Job and It was very limited in Scope. It took lot of time to get things done but its all to do with Business needs and requirements rather than technological challenges.
I was in that role for 3 Years and I moved to different team hoping new team would provide opportunity to learn and acquire new technical skills. That role didn't provide any opportunity for learning and acquiring new skills. After a year or so, moved to different team and re-org happened and moved to another team.
All these years , My technical skills eroded and I have to really dig deeper to keep abreast with whats going on in the industry. Its shame that full time job doesn't provide opportunity for you to innovate and acquire skill you want.
If you are looking for a role where you want work-life balance and don't care about learning , its great place.
You just need to good at getting along with mediocre people. Middle managers and directors have no clue whatsoever about leadership and motivating and leading the team. They are there because they get paid.
You don't see lot of passion among employees.
Our CEO could be the reason for this culture. In past 10 years, nothing has dramatically changed how Expedia operates. Its very limited in terms of search and book.
Still you do your constrained search of "where , when and what ". If you are just planning a trip and thinking about going somewhere cheap and doing some fun activities , you still got to use google.
Expedia is 10 Billion dollar company and our CEO is key factor for increasing the company value. But I don't think anyone focuses on travelers experience and passionate about changing how travelers shop and book. Majority of the focus is on tactical operations. How can we improve this feature, that feature, so we keep the shoppers on the page and book.
One thing I was truly disappointed is showing ads on website. When you ask the question, what value does the ads provide for travelers. Most of the times its distraction. You click on a ad you are interested and spend few more minutes to complete what you wanted to do. Expedia created ads team and they generate high return on investment. Again when you ask the question, Does that truly enhance the travel experience?.
End of the day, its 10 Billion dollar corporation . The focus is on generating more revenue.
If you want passionate job and you want to be part of learning and improving community , please don't even consider it.
If you want good work life balance and OK with maintaining status quo , this could be great fit.
Good luck on your choices.
