Netflix Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Netflix as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Free subscription, relatively high pay for the work, fun atmosphere

Cons – Completely mismanaged, focus on average call time rather than customer service

Advice to Senior Management – I understand labor is expensive, but customer service is more important than cost. Rather than outsourcing to 3rd party call centers that don't know how to answer generic questions about your service and worrying about getting customers off the line, direct those calling to educated representatives who can help them with any issue and not worry about call times. Granted, you don't want people carrying out personal conversations all day, but helping an elderly customer who is not tech savvy or trying to handle a complex billing issue should not be penalized as those are the customers you want to help in order to retain their business.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Netflix full-time

Pros – Colleagues are fantastic. People very smart and culture is collaborative. Work on very interesting projects and company moves fast - hard to get used to at first

Cons – Experience at the company highly depends on your specific manager and team and getting good feedback. Career development is sorely lacking except for those at the junior level.

Advice to Senior Management – Better processes / standards for promotion and greater opportunities for career development.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Netflix full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Incredibly talented coworkers, opportunity to make a difference (your work is really seen in other parts of the company), very interesting area of work, top company in the world in its field, excellent compensation.

Cons – Very specific areas of work, it might be difficult to transition to other groups or do anything different if you are not a fit.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Netflix full-time for more than a year

Pros – Lots of room to make your own decisions and think on your feet

Cons – When the price change occurred it was a cluster bomb that went off. Then it was announced the company was splitting to two (one DVD and one Streaming) and then it was announced none of that was happening. All the while customers were up in arms over this and we in management were always finding things out at the same time customers were so we had no time to prep our staff. Some very hard months for moral with our staff. Lost a lot of trust with our employee base in terms of management to subordinate relations.

Advice to Senior Management – Make sure your mid-level management knows anything key before the public gets it through the blogs, etc. They have to have time to prep their staff and gain buy-in to make a successful transition occur with company changes and/or snaffus.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Netflix full-time for less than a year

Pros – You're given independence and the ability to do your job how you see fit - some of the time. Most of the time management runs around like a chicken with their collective head cut off and priorities constantly change.

Cons – - The salaries are competitive, but not particularly high, despite what their so called slide deck proclaims. Keep in mind that your stock purchase and "bonus" is included, so $160k at Google is the same as $210k at Netflix.

- Constant threats of firing, a culture of fear and throwing other employees under the bus to save your own skin. The threats of firing lead to crunch and absurd stress levels.

- Employees aren't as intelligent as other high tech firms, they're hired more for the ability to play corporate politics than technical skill.

- To follow on the above, the average stay here seems to be about a year. Understand that Netflix isn't an engineering company, it's an entertainment company and a fragile streaming infrastructure and clunky front end is built to consume that entertainment. But content is king, not the technology, and it never will be.

Advice to Senior Management – I'd recommend working on technology a bit more. With the continual turnover and exodus of engineers, the technology and products are a house of cards.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Netflix full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Pay and benefits. They typically pay above scale and provide benefits from the time you become a full time employee.

Cons – Management, on several occasions missed their mark on several key initiatives in the center. Specifically they never had a clue what was happening on the floor in regards to employee satisfaction and were never involved in developing employees to rank up.

"Manage up or out" was stated on several occasions and this approach is what developed a culture of fear in the call center. High turnover is never a positive motivating factor and management was quick to let go of the people who stood against that ideal.

Advice to Senior Management – I would share advice but management seems to agree with Hastings' approach of shooting from the hip and not listening to his trusted advisors.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Netflix full-time for less than a year

Pros – Bleeding edge tech company, with great product.

Cons – Management cares more about metrics than your work/life balance. The buck always get's passed downhill.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest time into long term employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Netflix full-time for less than a year

Pros – - Genuinely great company, culture, people (seriously GREAT people!)
- Reed Hastings is pretty awesome
- They walk the walk in their culture deck

Overall, I highly recommend this company, with the caveat that the "sports team" culture can be at odds with a good work/life balance. If you're a workaholic, set your boundaries and defend them, otherwise you will drown.

While the culture *is* different and genuine, keep in mind that (like any other company in the Valley), your experience at this company is mostly dependent on your relationship with your direct manager and the people around you. Personally, I've been happier at far worse companies because I had a better relationship with coworkers and peers.

Cons – - The lack of PTO is a two-edged sword. Great that you can take what you need when you need; bad that there's never a good time to take time off. If you have any responsibility and you're taking any significant chunk of time, don't be surprised to find yourself on a working vacation.
- You will get tired of hearing "That's what Reed wants" and not being given further context. Granted, this might only a problem if you're not a good follower.
- The "Do it now, fix it later" attitude runs the risk of having things that are "good enough" but not great. The momentum will often keep you building on something "good enough," but not necessarily something of which you're actually proud.

Advice to Senior Management – Slow down just a tiny bit and put a little more thought into some of the things you do. The "do it now, fix it later" lends itself to unnecessary sloppiness.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Netflix

Pros – Super smart colleagues , lots of freedom. Fast moving culture.
A lot gets done in a very short time

Cons – Work can take over your life

Former Employee – worked at Netflix full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Walk the walk consistent with the well-articulated culture.
Very focused.
Clear, well-articulated strategy with very good execution against it.
Very transparent, both internally and externally.

Cons – A bit of a culture of fear articulated as "the sniper in the building" as some new hires and long-time employees are either bad fit or fail to grow, and are subsequently let go. Culture emphasizes experimentation, which includes needed organizational experiments, and this type of experimentation also reinforces the fear. Again, most of this well-articulated in culture deck, so no surprise.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep hiring and growing stars across all areas of the company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend