Not worth the hype - Anonymous employee Home24 Employee Review

note that when Home24 refers to themselves as an international company, this refers to their income sources, NOT their mentality nor their general conduct towards you as a non-eu foreigner. despite the hype around berlin, it is as open or closed minded as any other european city, ie, the fairer skinned you are, the better your experience will be Home24 is not used to competent non-eu foreigners. expect your English, your work style etc to be much more heavily interrogated than you are used to, even if you are correct. There have even been cases of Indians being told to modify their accents because they are not "understandable", and this by people who's English is barely comprehensible. Accept that despite the good marketing of Germany and Berlin, from a technology and business process point of view, there is a lag of at least 5 years, unless you work in something like Web Development Methodologies, best practises, planning etc, have yet to be valued, accepted or recognised, let alone implemented in Home24 Overall culture is unplanned, chaotic and intensely disorganised. Your pointing this out to management or other colleagues makes you "inflexible", "not open to challenges" and "expecting too much from a startup" motivation of staff; staff retention strategies or career development, is not known in this company there is alot of intellectual arrogance. this means that someone who has a PhD, will automatically be assumed to be correct even if their knowledge in a specific area is puerile at best your work and efforts are not automatically noticed unless someone else takes credit for it. so expect other people to take credit for things they didnt do, or have no idea how to do even if you are concise in your communication, dont expect to be listened to, it is more usual that there is silence until you are done talking, than actual absorption of your commentary or points there is an overportrayal of approachability. management and colleagues will appear to be approachable, and when this aspect is required for new ideas or sensitive discussions, it suddenly disappears alot of people work to be seen, rather than to produce, in other words, it is better to be seen at your desk early, and late, even if there is nothing being done. expect to see people leaving after their bosses leave. Home24 portray themselves as an english speaking company, but please dont expect normal english. expect rather comical emails with "hey" as a saluation (even if it is a "professional" email) or "with the kind support" or "hello together". it takes around 3 months to get used to the english in home24 if you are a mother tongue english speaker benefits are pretty low. do not expect a good benefits package. be aware of this when you are negotiating your salary, so rather ask for a higher salary than expect benefits to appear after your probation period don't expect much from your induction process (rather comically called onboarding here). the induction process will not tell you much about life in Berlin or Germany (even if you are foreign) or about your department or the company. Like most things in Home24, this is a tokenism, not a functional event despite what is heard about german labour laws, it is quite uncommon that your overtime is noticed or compensated with time off. however, any late arrivals certainly are noticed and brought to your attention in the harshest manner you will definitely struggle to know the difference between a "serious" discussion or a "passing comment" every task or instruction given to you, needs to be done immediately, irrespective of how badly thought out or unclear it is. your task not being completed is a reflection of your incompetence, not of the task-initiator get used to emails being ignored get used to poor guidance/feedback. if you want to build a career or get better in your job, you will not receive any clear list of KPAs, however, you will receive quite a bit of sometimes scathing criticism, this even if your manager is blatantly incompetent in their job if you are used to your manager knowing your job, plus his or hers, and using this experience and knowledge to guide or lead you and the department, then you will be sorely disappointed by home24 there are lots of cliques (think "Clueless" or similar movie genre). these cliques are at all levels, from management down to your colleagues of the same level. if you are foreign (especially dark-skinned) expect constant interrogation about your education, personal background and ESPECIALLY how it is that you can speak German. Apparently this is "small-talk" and "getting to know you", not an inappropriate insulting intrusion if you are expecting an enterprising or pioneering environment just because this is a startup, you will be sorely disappointed and become disillusioned quite quickly do not expect to meet many competent or experienced experts in any particular field here. there are a few who do know some things, but dont expect accomplished professionals or professionalism as a norm please do not be fooled by the jobvite page, there is definitely not a lot of "multiculturalism" in Home24