Recommended for Juniors; for mid and over, avoid like the plague
Pros
(Note the company is now "ETraveli"/"ETraveli Group" so check reviews for these as well) There are still some cool people left from the pre-merger world (for the Athens office, for the Swedish office... it's complicated). Lots of systems. Lots of data passing through, opportunity to learn and see various well-known systems handle all those air travellers. No need to work overtime, no weekends. 8.5-hour work in normal hours. Very recommended for junior people, but I wouldn't recommend staying for more than 2 years. Administration is very good at mergers. They even told us they are experienced in it. They are so good at it that they are patting themselves on the back for the good job. In fact, it may be the only actual skill they are good at. The environment in the Athens office is nice, polite people, and pays on-time. There is something like a breakfast everyday (it's very cheap and the same thing over and over, but its better than nothing) and free coffee via the coffee machines installed. There is also yoga twice a week (not in office hours) and a ping-pong table, basic insurance and that's about it with perks and amenities. Some people also get free parking.
Cons
Environment: The company merged with ETraveli some time ago, to form "ETraveli Group". In the post-merger world, the company is still using the good name it had before the merger. Some people are still optimistic. In reality, there is a downward spiral still hapening. Since the previous administration decided to sell-out and then abandon ship, this leaves the new administration with no limitations, or ethical restrictions; but this was known before the merger. The previous administration is still part of the company, and their promises are as empty as before but now it's more open. The post-merger restructuring is mostly a disaster, for the Greek office that is. The IT department is continuously bleeding people. For the brain drain that occurs, it matters little, nobody seems to care. We are still using the previous era's success for $ (for the company, not you, of course). In fact, from the merger only a couple of business units were kept, everything and everyone else was in for a "take it or leave it" attitude (officially no lay-offs occured). Note, that this attitude still mostly applies after the restructuring has occurred. Lots of talk about excellence but no walk. Just creating the proper environment for the inevitable blame game. Of course the larger fish eats the smaller one, so guess what. Tech: Holy c**p they have written their own date-time structures! This summarizes the naivety and the arrogance of the system the Swedish office has concocted. Colleagues are polite and they sometimes openly admit their failures but they keep on doing them! There is a not-invented-here mentality around, although it's not openly admited. Almost no documentation, obfuscated code, anti-patterns all over the place, blatant disregard of industry wide established practices. There are a few good parts but most of the time you will have to go through loops of failing, untested, spaghetti code. Beware that although an on-line travel agency, the culture is strongly not tech. There are other failings as well, such as that only very very few key-people have a more comprehensive knowledge of the system; the CTO recognizes this but the CEO and the business in general doesn't care: as long as short-term gains can be made, the long-term gains get shafted, period. Its not wrong, its the way it is. Day-to-day: It literally takes months for the administration to decide and do basic stuff, cites "reasons" for not doing it earlier or faster. Unfortunately, most of the times, the end-result is super-sloppy so no excuse for the inefficiencies and the ineffectiveness. Everything is driven from Sweden, which, is by itself a heads up on what the Swedes think of the Greeks (on private talks this is even more open). Maybe it's not racism and is a cultural thing, I don't know. Business has a very different idea of the systems than the tech so expect endless poorly directed discussions. The reason is not really incopetence but really really poor direction and leadership, if it hapened at all. Don't expect any special perks or amenities; there is some basic equipment; there is a really bad open space layout. You will probably work on a MacBook Pro, but this is not a blessing, this is forced, and for no real reason other than incompetence. Salary in the Athens office is significantly worse than the Swedish office and that takes into account the relevant difference in cost of living. You will still be doing the same work though, so good luck. Your effort will not be acurately evaluated and any excess, over-the-top work will not be rewarded even if sometimes recognized. The group CEO has stated that the reason we need to do our work well is to not have our owners bring their own people in. It's a super inefficient business structure but the brass don't care because: short-term they can hide the inefficiencies due to increasing sales; the business is VC owned so the company vision only goes 2-3 years in the future where it is expected that the investement will repay itself. TL;DR; Avoid the Greek office unless you are in a junior position, in which case, all of the above don't matter and you will have a great opportunity to see multiple systems that work with lots and lots of complexity and are actually making money. The Swedish (Gothenburg) office is a better place to be, because, apparently, SWE>GRC.