Criteo is being sold by its recruiters as a great opportunity to progress your career and work in a an interesting, stimulating environment that will enable you to learn a lot. This is why having a couple of years of professional experience I decided to take on another challenge there.
Unfortunately the story sold is not the reality.
Major part of the company middle management comes from internal promotion and for a big part of them, Criteo was one of the first jobs in their career. Because of that, they often lack the skills, experience and empathy needed to manage their team in an efficient way.
The upper management on the other hand does not understand the differences between markets and is absolutely not willing to listen. Constructive, honest and open feedback is not well perceived in the company, and instead it is expected of the employees to pretend that they are happy with the terrible decisions made.
Most importantly, the product sold lacks innovation and a competitive edge, and there is no vision of improving that in the company. That is clearly reflected in the stock price, which lost almost half of its value in the last 12 months.
All the factors added added up result in massive attrition rate and frustration among the employees.
It is even more disappointing when you know that Criteo is doing a great job finding and attracting smart, talented, fun people, many of which become great friends with their colleagues. It is sad to see these great people get frustrated, overworked and disappointed as a matter of weeks.
