Top posting here, I hope it's okay. I've spoken to a few Booking.com employees (not just Micha) - people I trust to tell me the truth (even if it isn't positive) - and it's apparent that not everyone experience the same things. I understood some people did not have the best experience (which is why some had gone after "greener pastures"), but by-and-large the sentiments that were expressed in that post were overwhelmingly different from anything I've heard people who work there say. I'm stressing I'm referring to personal conversations with people I count on for honesty. Some did say "yes, some things are more encouraged than others, and sometimes it annoys you, but overall, this isn't the way it seems in the post, at least not for me".
Strictly speaking, regard a feeling of professional freedom and satisfaction, if Booking.com were able to provide a home for Rafaël Garcia-Suarez for such a long time, it means they're capable enough to do it for others. Perhaps they're less motivated to do it for junior positions (which I can understand) than to extremely skilled people, but it doesn't mean it's impossible, or necessarily difficult for them to do so. This means that if you're professional enough, you're likely to be offered conditions that will be worthwhile for you in the long run. At least enough to attract some of the highest skilled Perl programmers in the world. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll prefer to work there, or that I would, but at least some insanely-good programmers do. So yeah, it means something. :) After speaking to the Booking.com people who came here for the Israel Perl Workshop, I understood they aren't necessarily looking for Perl programmers as much as they're looking for "good programmers", those they can then train to use Perl. I really support that methodology. It's difficult but it's very rewarding for the company, and very helpful for the Perl community. On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 5:27 PM, Micha <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 11:26 AM, Shmuel Fomberg > <[email protected]>wrote: > > Hi Shmuel, > > Though I do get payed by Booking.com (and using its resources for writing > this post too :)), this is a personal (!) reply I felt the need to post to > provide some insight from someone who's actually working for this company. > > Yikes! >> And I almost took a job with them... >> >> > Sorry that you feel this way, but I suggest you don't jump into > conclusions based on a post from one anonymous source where you can easily > get feedback from (many) people (with names) who work for the company (so > you can at least be sure about that) about their own experience. > I bet you will find that a lot of employees (junior / mid-level / senior > and beyond even that) at Booking.com describe a (very) different experience. > > >> It is true what he says about them dealing with all the developer as >> junior. I interview with them, and got an offer. After much checking and >> calculation, I found out that I probably won't be able to save money, and >> the salary is, well, as for junior position. >> >> > Booking.com is hiring developers (yes, we are still growing rapidly, and > therefore need more people) with different levels of experience and > knowledge, so naturally offers vary per person based on many different > factors. > Based on my personal experience, I think your conclusions may be wrong (I > bet there are so many factors that need to be taken into account in order > to make such calculation properly...). > > There are also other aspects to work-life in Booking.com such as awesome > social experience (the company is full of expats coming from many different > countries forming great and unique social life in and out of the office, > which I'll cherish forever), stress-free environment and life (in the > Netherlands) compared to Israel, the excitement of being part of something > as big as Booking.com in the market it plays in, which also keeps on > growing; and, of course, the professional aspect (just look at the next > comment). > > The message that I got from that was: we don't care how good you are in >> programming >> > > I believe your conclusion is wrong, simply because: > > Yves Orton, Abigail, Rafaël Garcia-Suarez, Liz Mattijsen (until recently) > and the list goes on and on (and on)... > > I like refactoring and improving things. probably would not have >> survived there for long. >> > > Personal preference, that's perfectly fine. > > Your assumption that we don't work on improving things is simply wrong. > Though we may have slightly different definitions of 'improving' and of > 'things' (this is a long discussion that I won't go into here), I can just > say that as someone who identifies with the constant need to 'improve > things' (and a pedantic one as well) my work here keeps me very much > satisfied professionally and I find the way to channel this need into > practical and productive use. > > If you want to know more, feel free to contact me personally. > (hell, if you get to visit Amsterdam - come have a beer with me, I'll tell > you even more) > > Cheers, > Micha Nasriachi > Booking.com > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Perl mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.perl.org.il/mailman/listinfo/perl >
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