Good place to get experience, with some downsides - Software Engineer KAYAK Employee Review

3.0
Dec 12, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very high code quality standards Good place to get experience, since you get a lot deep knowledge Fast paced environment Good career opportunities, benefits and pay Nice people

Cons

Big code base, with lots of old code Somewhat stressful environment and not the best work-life balance, for engineering roles (on call, timezone differences) Takes a lot of effort to do little impact (huge product, so expected). Kinda narrow learning path for engineering roles - coding one language and not really expanding beyond that, apart from necessary tools, and even then a lot of tools are internal. Yes you get into different domains, but technology wise - pretty narrow

Explore other reviews about KAYAK

5.0
Jan 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people and interesting industry to be in

Cons

Sometimes too focused on the data and not the human experience.

4.0
Nov 24, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits: Healthcare had great coverage and affordable monthly payments. I also really appreciated the work-from-wherever policy as well as all the office snacks. Fantastic people: I genuinely loved the people I worked with—they made me feel like I belonged and was appreciated. My manager worked to build me up, something that can't be said for a lot of places. Travel perks: The ability to travel for work made this experience incredibly rewarding.

Cons

Slow mobility: Trying to get promoted felt like a moving goalpost—the expectations changed every six months and made it nearly impossible to get to the next step. Even then, the business was stingy about who gets promoted, which was incredibly discouraging after years of trying to prove myself.

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