Tell me what you know about these companies!

[brikis98]

I'll be interviewing for a software engineering position with both and am trying to gather some info about them: anyone know if they are good places to work? How profitable? Respected? Well known?

If I joined either company, I'd primarily be doing Java and web (Struts, JSP, HTML, etc) coding.

UPDATE: assume you have equivalent offers from both companies. which would you join?

 

[Chronoshock]

I hear ITA uses Lisp as their primary programming language, so even if you wind up doing Java/web work its probably good to be somewhat familiar with it

 

[Aluvus]

Chapter 26 of this book is an interview with one of the cofounders of TripAdvisor. I don't know how much of it would interest you. As a piece of trivia, at that point in time they did not have a receptionist.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: Chronoshock
I hear ITA uses Lisp as their primary programming language, so even if you wind up doing Java/web work its probably good to be somewhat familiar with it

yea, they are definitely a LISP house, with which i have no real experience. however, the job they are hiring for is web developer and they seemed extremely interested in my (LISP-free) experience...

 

[brikis98]

bump

 

[Uppsala9496]

Don't really know anything about either company. I do use ITA frquently when planning trips though...

 

[brikis98]

ttt

 

[mooglemania85]

TripAdvisor is the lifeblood of the agri-tourism industry. A couple of bad reviews there, you may as well close up shop. That's what took down the Stalk Inn, one of the cutest little asparagus farms you'll ever see.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: mooglemania85
TripAdvisor is the lifeblood of the agri-tourism industry. A couple of bad reviews there, you may as well close up shop. That's what took down the Stalk Inn, one of the cutest little asparagus farms you'll ever see.

thanks dwight

 

[sjwaste]

Well, for starters, are you familiar with their sites and products? The ability to book multi-segment flights through specified cities is a big reason people use ITA, especially mileage runners and such, so knowing some trivia like that might help convey that you understand some of their customer base.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Well, for starters, are you familiar with their sites and products? The ability to book multi-segment flights through specified cities is a big reason people use ITA, especially mileage runners and such, so knowing some trivia like that might help convey that you understand some of their customer base.

updated the op with a more specific question:

assume you have equivalent offers from both companies. which would you join?

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Well, for starters, are you familiar with their sites and products? The ability to book multi-segment flights through specified cities is a big reason people use ITA, especially mileage runners and such, so knowing some trivia like that might help convey that you understand some of their customer base.

updated the op with a more specific question:

assume you have equivalent offers from both companies. which would you join?

Equivalent in salary, or equivalent in total comp?

I might be the minority in this, but even though I'm only in my mid 20's, I still work primarily for quality of life and not firm prestige (although I'm at a fairly well known company now, I've gotten better salary offers outside but have chosen to stay because the people are great where I am now). If they're within a few k on salary, I'll take the better vacation package, or the one with the better flex scheduling, and ABSOLUTELY without question, go to work for the better boss. I go so far as to say I have to like my manager, they have to be someone I'd like to have a beer with and bs for a while, hypothetically, because you're going to be spending a LOT of time with these people.

To be perfectly honest, I've rarely, if ever, considered the product when deciding on a job offer, other than some broad analysis of whether or not I think they're going out of business in the next six months. I firmly believe I could move 20% more dog shit if I liked coming to work and the environment in the office.

This is a long way of suggesting you look at your values, look at theirs, and see where the better match is. Tell us more about what you want and what they're offering beyond the dollars.

 

[brikis98]

Originally posted by: sjwaste

Originally posted by: brikis98

Originally posted by: sjwaste
Well, for starters, are you familiar with their sites and products? The ability to book multi-segment flights through specified cities is a big reason people use ITA, especially mileage runners and such, so knowing some trivia like that might help convey that you understand some of their customer base.

updated the op with a more specific question:

assume you have equivalent offers from both companies. which would you join?

Equivalent in salary, or equivalent in total comp?

I might be the minority in this, but even though I'm only in my mid 20's, I still work primarily for quality of life and not firm prestige (although I'm at a fairly well known company now, I've gotten better salary offers outside but have chosen to stay because the people are great where I am now). If they're within a few k on salary, I'll take the better vacation package, or the one with the better flex scheduling, and ABSOLUTELY without question, go to work for the better boss. I go so far as to say I have to like my manager, they have to be someone I'd like to have a beer with and bs for a while, hypothetically, because you're going to be spending a LOT of time with these people.

To be perfectly honest, I've rarely, if ever, considered the product when deciding on a job offer, other than some broad analysis of whether or not I think they're going out of business in the next six months. I firmly believe I could move 20% more dog shit if I liked coming to work and the environment in the office.

This is a long way of suggesting you look at your values, look at theirs, and see where the better match is. Tell us more about what you want and what they're offering beyond the dollars.

that's a reasonable analysis, and i've certainly done that.

the issue i'm having is finding much information about the companies themselves. i guess i don't know how to analyze if they are successful/secure financially, judge how it would be to work from them (lets face it, a 5 hour interview doesn't show you much), etc.

 

[sjwaste]

I can't really help with the stability part, since I've yet to go to work for a company that wasn't public or large and ancient.

Figuring out the environment really has a lot to do with asking questions about things you care about during the interview, especially the part where your would-be boss is interviewing you. I tend to be fairly straight forward with what I'm looking for and my expectations, but that's because I had a bad experience with my first job out of college, where I definitely accepted an offer and got burned in terms of an awful work environment and the work not being what I interviewed to do. So from then on, I decided I was going to be myself, toned down slightly for the office, of course, in my interviews. If the interview felt awkward or there wasnt much conversation between me and the manager, I'd usually just pass on the offer if I got it. At the least, feel free to ask about management involvement, without using the word micromanagement, but figure out if you're going to be on your own or closely supervised.

Also, see if you can interview with peers instead of just management. In my current job, I interview a lot of the college hires and 20-somethings one on one, and I usually spend about half the time figuring out fit in terms of skills, willingness to learn, etc, and spend the next half working out whether or not this person likes the people they've met here so far and would actually like to work in this office. Social skills are important to me in a boss, so they're important to me when I'm interviewing potential colleagues too. And people are usually more relaxed around me because I'm their age, pretty laid back, and not above them on the corporate totem pole, so both sides have a really good chance to bs for a little bit and figure out if it's really a place for them. It's win-win-win, as Michael Scott would say.