Yahoo announced today that Marissa Mayer, a long-time Google executive and the company’s 20th employee, would be taking over as the company’s top executive. According to Bloomberg, Mayer is Yahoo’s fifth CEO in four years and will be charged with helping the company regain the attention of Web surfers who have backed away from the site, opting instead to socialize on Facebook and Twitter and search the Web using Google’s tools.
As Mayer readies to take the reigns tomorrow, one of the questions following the company’s many public struggles is what Mayer can do for Yahoo’s company culture? We dug into the more than 950 Yahoo employee reviews to shed light on what the culture is like today before Mayer walks through the doors of this tech giant. Below are just a few highlights into what Yahoo employees think is working well, what needs improvement and what advice they have to offer for their new CEO:
Pros – Best Reasons to Work at Yahoo
- “Despite the attrition, the engineers there are smart and passionate. You have the opportunity to learn to solve scalability problems that few companies have to deal with. The recent instability has created career opportunities for those who aggressively seek it.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)
- “No two days are alike in this fast-paced work environment. Work is diverse and challenging with a global audience and impact. Intelligent and articulate colleagues with managers who really do take a personal interest in your career. Yahoo! is a major player despite its critics.” – Yahoo Manager (Sunnyvale, CA)
- “Great People. Everyone loves being here and wants Yahoo to win.” – Yahoo Global Technology Intern (Sunnyvale, CA)
Cons – Some of the Downsides of Working at Yahoo
- “The revolving door at the executive level in the last 5 years have made it impossible to execute on any strategic plans, because every new CEO or C-Level executive will reorg and disrupt everything that was in motion.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)
- “Frequent turmoil at the executive level which eventually bleeds down into uncertainty and change at all levels.” - Yahoo Senior Project Manager (Burbank, CA)
- “Inconsistent company strategy and roadmap.” – Yahoo Software Developer (Sunnyvale, CA)
Advice to Yahoo Senior Management:
- “Stop the executive shuffle. No single executive, organizational makeup, or development methodology is the magic bullet to solving Yahoo’s problems. Let people iterate on product experiences to make them better incrementally instead of trying to do some huge change every year.” – Yahoo Software Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)
- “Go back to technology route and keep innovating.” – Yahoo Principal Engineer (location n/a)
- “Pick a direction and stick with it. Don’t plan and replan and replan, just execute and trust in the results.” - Yahoo Front End Engineer (Sunnyvale, CA)
What do you think? Will Mayer improve the culture at Yahoo?