Vantaggi
As a software engineer I favor companies that are big enough to have interesting scaling work, but small enough where there is still new ground to cover and one can have huge impact as an individual contributor. HotelTonight delivers on both in spades. You're not just a cog in a giant machine, you actually get the chance to see what drives the business and shape the future of the company directly through your work. The engineering culture encourages ownership and empowerment of individuals. Custom tooling and internal documentation allows teams to run their own containerized services, and develop true operational expertise in deploying production code at scale. We don't simply throw code over the wall to a devops team–it is expected for us to watch our code in production and develop good intuition for what will or won't work. At the same time, we also work very closely with product managers and are expected to be thinking of the product implications in everything we do. As an engineer, being able to cover the gamut from infrastructure up to UI and product implications is great experience that gives a broad view of the economic value we create beyond just slinging code. This type of experience paves the way for a wider range of career options than more silo'ed roles would. One thing I particularly appreciate compared to other companies is the financial and operational transparency. The CEO gives a weekly update to the whole company outlining the financial picture for the company, leadership discussions, strategic plans, as well as responding to questions from anyone in the company. It is apparent from these all-hands meetings that our growth is sustainable and not based on buying marketshare through irresponsible means that could burn us down the line. Being part of a real company with solid financials versus SV smoke and mirrors is extremely valuable to me as a software engineer who's been to a few rodeos. Last but not least, the team is fantastic to work with. Across the board the company truly values hiring good, humble people who are all about doing the best work they can. HT has quite a diverse group spread across six offices in North America and Europe, and it is a pleasure to come in every day and see what ideas people are cooking up.
Svantaggi
The downside of working at HT is that things can get a bit chaotic at times. Management is good about avoiding unrealistic deadlines or death marches, but it is the nature of a fast-growing business that things change. This offers new opportunities but could be stressful for those who prefer unchanging and clearly defined roles.
