Trade Me FAQ

Great culture, people are great and it's a fun work environment

They don't really care about you as an employee, not much development or growth or opportunities to switch career paths within the company

Encourage people to be able to switch career paths and mentor them a bit more. Provide more development

Outside perception was great, fun social events

No room for commercial growth

Great teammates Occasional team dinner

Poor pay Discrimination with promotions Customer service treated like not part of wider company

Free lunches, beers on Friday, pool table & table tennis. Some bright young enthusiastic people.

Highly reactive culture which appears to have been made worse by competitive pressures and new ownership (chasing profits). Teams and business units appear to operate in silo's with very little collaboration evident, lead by "energiser bunny drill sergeants" (as aptly stated on a previous review) who tend to be tail spinning without any strategic direction. Instead of patting each other on the back for the sheer volume of trivial projects teams can deliver, Trade Me really needs to focus on initiatives that improve the value proposition and have significance to its customers. Unfortunately that is just the start of the cultural issues. The leadership team appears to be extremely political in its selection criteria and managers are often promoted based on nepotism rather than talent. Unfortunately the result is that a number of subject matter experts have become frustrated and left. When you combine this with the latest round of poorly managed restructures, there has been a huge talent drain from the business which I foresee will continue until the leadership team addresses and remediates the culture.

Take a good hard look at the senior leadership, promote more collaborative working culture, take a breath, pause and consider the strategic impact of initiatives being delivered. Positivity and energy is great when a business has clear strategic direction from management but in the absence of this, it just creates confusion and sub optimal outcomes from teams. Value the expertise that you have in the business, and adopt a more competency based culture that rewards results and talent rather than just relationships. Facebook will continue to be a major threat and Trade Me needs to work out where its place is in the new world of e-commerce.

A good culture inside, and a great brand outside - it's so nice to mention to people that you work for Trade Me and see their genuine positive response. Also cool to have your work visible and used by so many people.

Some of the tech, tools and practices are too old for what should be a tech-leading company. The spread across lots of industries means vision less clear and focussed than in should be.

Don't be afraid to make big calls and take some risks.