It has to be said....and this isn't office based, this is applicable in all offices worldwide.
Pros
Pay, trainings provided, travelling (yearly trip to Amsterdam paid by the company), great co-workers. It is a big company so there are quite of financial advantages (christmas present), health benefits, 4 weeks + vacations!! Because everyone is quite miserable in their own position, there is a great solidarity in the office. Once you have worked at Booking.com, you can work anywhere
Cons
Ouch where to start.... - Account managers: absolutely NO work life balance. 50% travels means that when you are in the office that's a minimum of 12+ hours/day, when you are out of the office, you are basically working until midnight EVERYDAY with barely a lunch break. Not even to mention working during weekends. Management encourages you to leave on time but work demanded does not fit in a day. Oh and when you actually manage to get everything done working crazy hours you are blamed not to take additional initiatives... Do NOT ever wish to get a major market as this means additional projects, pressure and stress. As a matter of fact when i left nobody volunteered to take over my nb 1 market for the office... - Great company if you like to show off, tell the word how great you are and what an amazing job you do (you dont actually need to do a good job, just say you do). This is actually against the official company policy....what happened to 'work horses versus show ponies'?? - Promotions based on 'who you know' basis. - Micro management, even if you work 12h a day +, but one day you dont make 10 acquisition calls and report the notes (because on the road you dont have internet everywhere), say bye bye to your bonus. You need to justify everything, every call, every action. - The role of an account manager has become a call center; where all your calls and emails are tracked very closely. No consideration for the employees you are just a dot that they place wherever and whenever they need you. Funny enough I had recommended one of my friend, which i regretted 6 months later as she was (along with the rest of her team) maltreated by her manager. Every single manager at all levels was aware of the situation, including HR directly but you see nothing was ever done as this person was so good at saying how much of an amazing job she was doing... First 2 years were great, intense but i am a hard worker so dealt with it. Last year was just a nightmare and apparently got much worst since I left only a few months ago....(which I had anticipated)