Best career choice you could possibly make.
Pros
-Amazing team of competent humans-- I've never experienced anything where I've had so much trust in my team. -Great superficial perks-- games, food, an actual bar in the kitchen, all the La Croix you could ever need, team outings and events. -Socially-conscious-- we have women and people of color in our leadership, we compost, we have peer-led, corporately sponsored initiatives for volunteering. -Really fair compensation package-- enough said. -Great insurance, improving parental leave policies, and, in general, the kind of supportive environment that lets you take care of yourself as a human when you really need it even if it's out of scope for a policy. -Flexible hours and environments-- Offices all over the world, lots of shifts to fit different lifestyles, and flexibility to WFH (wherever "H" may be that day) to accommodate your real life. -Rewarding work-- we solve real problem. We help real people solve actual needs that help get people paid, sustain communities, and serve others. That's real, real cool. -Long-term career support and lots of opportunities to transfer to other PayPal family companies as your own life-goals evolved.
Cons
Real talk: The work we do is hard. Period. And it's not a product of Braintree as a company. It's deeply challenging work by its nature. We're building the least visible but most important piece of most companies' business. Day-to-day few companies are deeply passionate about their payments processor (as opposed to, like, their merchandise or marketing efforts...)--- but if there is any difficulty in that revenue stream, it's a huge, huge deal. While it's the best job I've ever had, it's certainly also the hardest. Not a job for the faint of heart. It's a career, a commitment. And that's not for everyone. Being part of the PayPal family does mean some more structure to certain policies and the occasional bureaucratic mandates, but the leadership team here does a great job of shielding us from the major inconveniences. But know coming in that, yeah, you're gonna have to go through some eye-rolls to get a legal document executed or to organize an event. It's not often, but we're not a start up anymore and you shouldn't expect to do whatever you want without formal checks. That said. The still-pretty-flat structure we have on our teams, built out of our start up legacy, does mean that your job is what you make of it. Reading through the other reviews, comments of "lacking leadership" or "big learning curve" or "not much guidance in career paths" resonate-- but it's not the management's fault. Because there's not really a ton of management to hold responsible. The only person holding you back here is you, and that's hard in its own right. There's a huge opportunity to carve out your role in an established-but-always-evolving team. If you don't put in the effort to define your work, it can be uncomfortable-- but it's really your own fault. The hiring process is intense. We are deeply pickly. I think we sometimes miss really great candidates because we have almost-unattainably-high standards. But, I guess, the people that DO make it are pretty spectacular and stay around forever-- so what the (awesome) recruiting team does might be working. It's an alcohol-centric environment at times. As not-a-big-drinker, it's not my favorite thing and can make me disinclined to engage socially.
