Gut am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The strongest part of the company is the people. I have had the opportunity to work with many highly skilled, friendly, and supportive colleagues from different countries and professional backgrounds.
The office location is also a major advantage. It is very centrally located, close to Berlin Central Station, and easy to reach by public transport from different parts of the city as well as from outside Berlin. There are also plenty of shops and food options nearby.
The company offers the opportunity to work on a large-scale digital product with modern technologies and interesting technical challenges. Depending on the team, engineers can gain experience with cloud technologies, distributed systems, modern backend development, security, and AI.
I also appreciate the international working environment and the opportunity to learn from experienced colleagues.
Overall, the talented people, central office location, modern technical environment, and opportunity to work on a well-known product are among the company's biggest strengths
Schlecht am Arbeitgeber finde ich
The biggest downside for me is how much the company has changed over the last few years. Flexibility has been reduced significantly, with stricter office attendance requirements and fewer opportunities to work from abroad.
Career progression can be difficult and not always transparent. Performance evaluations sometimes feel too dependent on individual perceptions and second-hand feedback rather than clear and measurable criteria. Professional development has also become more limited, with Udemy being the main learning option and additional training often requiring considerable justification.
Frequent organizational changes, changing teams and priorities can make it difficult to build long-term ownership and expertise in one product. At the same time, there is strong pressure to adopt AI, sometimes without enough consideration of whether it actually adds value to a particular project.
Overall, I feel that some of the flexibility, trust, and employee-focused culture that previously made the company attractive has been lost
Verbesserungsvorschläge
I would recommend bringing back more flexibility in the hybrid working model and giving employees more freedom to decide which days they come to the office. The previous model was one of the company's strengths, especially for international employees.
Performance evaluations and promotion decisions should be more transparent and based on clear criteria, measurable contributions, and concrete examples rather than primarily on second-hand feedback or individual perceptions. Employees should have a clear understanding of what is expected to reach the next career level.
The company could also invest more in professional development. Udemy is useful, but employees should have easier access to relevant external courses, training, and conferences without having to strongly justify every learning request.
I would also recommend focusing more on long-term team stability and ownership instead of frequent organizational changes and shifting priorities
Finally, AI should remain an important tool, but its use should be driven by the actual needs of a project. Teams should have the freedom to evaluate where AI provides real value instead of feeling pressure to use it simply because it is currently a strategic priority
Arbeitsatmosphäre
The working atmosphere was very positive and collaborative at the beginning. I especially appreciated working with many helpful, professional, and supportive colleagues.
Over time, however, my experience changed significantly. Frequent organizational changes, changing teams and priorities, as well as increasing performance pressure, created uncertainty and made the working atmosphere more stressful. At times, I also felt that appreciation and long-term direction were missing.
The use of AI is strongly encouraged across the organization. In general, I see modern AI tools as valuable and I am happy to use them when they provide a clear benefit. However, in my experience, their use is sometimes promoted without sufficiently considering whether they are actually the right solution for a particular project or task. I believe AI should be treated as a tool whose value is evaluated based on the specific use case, rather than as a goal in itself.
Overall, I experienced the working atmosphere much more positively at the beginning than I have more recently.
Work-Life-Balance
Until autumn 2025, the company offered a high degree of flexibility. Employees could usually work from home three days a week and come to the office twice a week. There were also more opportunities to work temporarily from outside Germany, which was particularly valuable for international colleagues.
Since autumn 2025, the office policy has become significantly stricter. Employees are now expected to be in the office three days per week and must include either Monday or Friday as one of their office days. This makes it much more difficult to work temporarily from another German city or to combine remote work with a longer weekend.
The three-day office requirement is also monitored quite strictly. If an employee comes to the office only two days instead of the required three without a valid reason, this can be addressed by management and may have consequences. As a result, the hybrid model feels much less flexible than it did before.
The possibility to work from outside Germany has also been reduced to only two weeks per year. In my view, this is a considerable loss of flexibility compared with the previous policy.
Overall, work-life balance and flexibility used to be among the
Karriere/Weiterbildung
Career development and training opportunities have become noticeably more limited since 2025. In my experience, the company has become much more cost-conscious when it comes to professional development, external training, courses, and conferences.
Udemy is available and provides access to a large number of online courses, which is useful for self-directed learning. Beyond Udemy, however, opportunities for company-funded external training or structured professional development are rather limited
When requesting additional training, employees often have to strongly justify why a particular course or training is necessary and what direct benefit it will bring to their current work. This can make professional development feel like something that needs to be negotiated and defended rather than something that is actively encouraged and supported
At the same time, engineers are expected to continuously develop their skills and keep up with new technologies, so a significant part of the responsibility for learning is left to the individual employee.
Career progression can also be challenging. The path to promotion is not always transparent and depends on many different factors. I hav
Kollegenzusammenhalt
Collaboration among colleagues is generally positive, and I have worked with many skilled and supportive people who are willing to help and share their knowledge. However, the actual level of collaboration depends heavily on the workload. Colleagues are often busy with their own tasks and priorities, which means there is not always enough time to work on tickets together, exchange knowledge in depth, or support each other when needed. In my experience, the willingness to collaborate is there, but the available time and capacity are often limited.
Umgang mit älteren Kollegen
There are relatively few older colleagues in the teams I have worked with, so it is difficult for me to give a meaningful assessment of this topic. Based on my personal experience, I have not observed any specific issues regarding the treatment of older employees.
Vorgesetztenverhalten
In my experience, management behavior depends strongly on the individual manager. One aspect I found particularly difficult was the way performance and contributions were sometimes evaluated. I occasionally had the impression that assessments were influenced more by second-hand feedback or perceptions from others than by concrete examples, measurable results, or direct observation of the work.
Career progression can also feel difficult and not always transparent. Promotion seems to depend on many different factors beyond simply delivering good results and performing well in your role. The criteria and the path to the next level are not always easy to understand.
I have also seen highly skilled, motivated, and hard-working colleagues leave the company after around two years because they were unable to reach an agreement on their career progression or did not see a clear path to promotion. From my perspective, losing strong employees for this reason is unfortunate.
I would appreciate more transparent and fact-based performance evaluations, clearer expectations for each career level, and a more predictable promotion process. Feedback should be based on specific examples and measura
Arbeitsbedingungen
The technical working conditions are generally good. Employees are provided with modern equipment, and the office is centrally located and easy to reach by public transport. The office itself offers different spaces for meetings and focused work.
Kommunikation
Communication within individual teams is generally open and straightforward, and colleagues are usually willing to share information and help each other.
Communication from management, however, could be more transparent and consistent. Organizational changes, shifting priorities, and decisions that directly affect employees are sometimes communicated without enough context or clear reasoning. At times, it can be difficult to understand why certain decisions were made or what the long-term direction is.
I would appreciate earlier and more transparent communication, especially when it comes to organizational changes, expectations, and decisions that have a significant impact on employees.
Gehalt/Benefits
Salaries are generally competitive, although this naturally depends on the role and level. The company also offers a solid benefits package, including an annual performance-related bonus, employee discounts, pension-related benefits, and other corporate benefits.
The bonus depends partly on the outcome of your individual performance review. This means that the final compensation can also be influenced by how your performance is evaluated by management. Considering that performance assessments can sometimes feel subjective, this can make the bonus less predictable.
Some benefits and working conditions have also become less attractive over time, particularly the reduced flexibility around remote work and working from abroad.
Overall, I consider the compensation and benefits package to be good, but not exceptional. In my view, it does not fully compensate for the limited career progression and the loss of flexibility compared with previous years.
Gleichberechtigung
The company has a diverse and international workforce. I have worked with colleagues from many different countries, cultures, and professional backgrounds. English is widely used in engineering, which makes it easier for international employees to integrate and contribute. Overall, I experienced diversity as a positive aspect of the company.
Interessante Aufgaben
There are definitely interesting technical challenges and opportunities to work with modern technologies. Depending on the team and project, engineers can work on backend services, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, security topics, migrations, and AI-related initiatives.
However, the quality of the tasks depends heavily on the team and current business priorities. Some projects offer real technical challenges and ownership, while others consist mainly of maintenance, migrations, support work, security fixes, or smaller tickets. Frequent changes in teams and priorities can also make it difficult to build deep knowledge of one product and take long-term ownership.
Overall, there are plenty of interesting technical topics in the company, but having consistently challenging and meaningful tasks is not guaranteed.