Homogeneous team and culture of meh - Senior Manager PayPal Employee Review

2.0
Mar 9, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation and work life balance. This is why most people work here.

Cons

People are hired and promoted by relationships only. Entire leadership teams are of same nationality who speak well but don't have any clue on how to manage engineering teams. Too many metrics and dashboards are fabricated. Code quality is a joke as developers and leaders are all timeline driven without nearly enough interest for investing in developer productivity, tooling, education, and testing. Branching hell adopted to control the poor build and code quality before release.

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PayPal Response
10y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and perspectives. While it is always hard to hear that a former employee did not have an ideal experience at PayPal, I feel good knowing that we are already working to address the issues you’ve advised us to focus on. Inclusion is one of the PayPal values because we recognize that better results come from diverse teams. We still have opportunities in some teams to improve our diversity and we remain committed to this journey.

Explore other reviews about PayPal

5.0
May 7, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good work life balance. Lot of opportunities to learn

Cons

Company is in transition mode

2.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PayPal has a lot of potential. It has two very strong brands in PayPal and Venmo with significant awareness and user bases that other companies envy. There are pockets of teams that are really pushing the envelop to reimagine what PayPal and Venmo could be—especially the Venmo team—and to move with speed given the company must stay focused and not waste time with Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and so many other competitors nipping at PayPal's heels and aggressively taking market share.

Cons

While some teams are pushing to self-disrupt and are moving fast, too many teams—and I'd argue the majority of the company–are living off of PayPal's laurels from the late 2010s through the pandemic. The culture and mindset have to change for the company to remain competitive. Otherwise, they are the Titanic and they're sinking slowly. The former CEO who only last 2 years tried diversifying the company's revenue, planning for the future. But the board and its former chairman (now new CEO) felt he wasn't moving fast enough to stabilize and marketshare. Instead, the board hired the former chairman who made computers and printers at HP—another sinking ship—to lead the oldest fintech company. The loss of confidence in the leadership team and the strategy are only accelerating.

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