best of french and us work cultures - Senior Software Engineer Criteo Employee Review

5.0
5 Sept 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

One can leave very big impact because Palo Alto office is used for new project|products and they are mostly independent from HQ. So you have a feel of midsize company (think 50 engineers) but stability and perks of big company (~500 engineers). They like initiative and encourage engineers to think about big picture and come up with what to do. And the last point is cool cultural mix. The company was born in France but french are minority in this office so don't be afraid of being overwhelmed. As for work and life balance. I keep hearing that so much from my friends working in Sillicon Valley. I think Criteo is unique in SV. Work-life balance here is not something HR are trying to force for people not to burn out. It is natural here. Just look at amount of day offs and respected holidays.

Cons

There is 10 hours difference with HQ

Explore other reviews about Criteo

5.0
8 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great environment, great people to work with

Cons

Need to go back to office

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Criteo Response
1w
We're thrilled to receive such positive feedback and to know that you've found a place where you can grow and thrive at Criteo. Thank you for sharing and for your trust all these years. It's great to have you on the team!
2.0
31 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart, hardworking people at the individual contributor level (many of whom are now gone). Little micro-managing, but that’s because everyone’s bandwidth is near 0

Cons

Post–new CEO, the company has descended into complete chaos. There is no transparency around decisions that impact teams and roles. There have been consistent strategy, personnel, and supplier changes with no explanation, accountability, or follow-through. Cons, continued: Employee input and performance do not matter. Decisions feel driven by appeasing BoD and optics rather than results, input and reality. The culture has become a corporate hellscape of: Endless reorganizations with no clear rationale, including layoffs with no reasoning Vague all-hands meetings that avoid real issues, even when directly asked A massive disconnect between the C-suite and day-to-day reality Eroded trust and growing position insecurity Middle managers incentivized to prioritize managing up & executive optics over team advocacy “Return to Office” policy put in place when promised a “Work from Anywhere” position, where the RTO policy differs across employees’ location Little to no growth opportunities despite high performance Under-market average compensation that was justified by locale, “Work from Anywhere”, and flexibility — which was recently rolled back A clear favoritism to those that “talk the talk” vs “performance with numbers”

10
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