Alarm.com reviews

3.7

63% would recommend to a friend

(133 total reviews)

Steve Trundle

71% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

133 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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3.0
Feb 15, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

First let me say that working at Alarm.com (ADC) was an amazing experience for me. But I joined at a time where a lot of my positive moments were with the ADC of old. This is no longer a mid-growth stage startup, and the company that this is today is a far cry from the one I joined. So it's hard for me to objectively give both these pros and cons. But I will try my best to note a few pros that were still relevant by the time of my departure. The people and culture are awesome- If you enjoy a place where you could and would actually want to hang out with coworkers outside of work, this is that place. Culture- pay is not everything. ADC puts in a lot of work in creating a great working atmosphere and planning many fun and enjoyable events. Very trendy tech- Just look at all of the buzz around IoT and smart homes in the press. This is a great launch pad for roles in the future and amazing to put on your CV. Autonomy- I found that a lot of my work had a lot of autonomy which was very nice (however, that trend was diminishing over time) Non-government tech in DC- So you want to work for a true tech company in the DC area, and not work in the government sector... Well of course you're reading this, ADC is on a short list ; )

Cons

Okay, again, this comes from the view of my last few months at the firm: Advancement- If you want to advance beyond your current role (or beyond that), you should have joined 3+ years ago. They are going to hire middle and top management from outside the company (probably old friends of the executives) and that's just how things are going to be. Period. It's not that those outside hires are going to necessarily be bad, some are, some aren't, but those roles are not going to you. You will work until you realize the gig they are playing, then you will leave, write a Glassdoor review, and then get replaced by the next guy/gal and the cycle will continue. Compensation- I left for a job with fewer hours and more than twice the pay. This is in no way an exaggeration. Now, to be fair, my experience with those stats is not at all the norm. But given my time and impact to the firm, it highlights just how intense of an effect year after year of small incremental raises can have on your salary. I was working so hard and for so long, I simply didn't realize how much the skills I built would go for in the market until I searched. Pease don't be the next person here or anywhere else to stay too long. Sentiment- the two above things create one big issue, discontent. As a poorly formed analogy, working for ADC is like Dorthy going into Oz: First you just get your bearings figuring out where you are (like any company), then you meet some great people who all want to work together and reach a common goal, but then you realize this place is not what you thought it was and you want to get out. This manifests itself in lots of young employees who are hard working and supper happy with the culture and lots of older employees (2+ years, so not actually old) disgruntled but holding on hope that "soon things will be better here."

1.0
Jan 26, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

ADC's culture is fine, benefits are good, people are colaborative, a lot of fun. The product is interesting, releases are weekly, so the builds are not that huge.

Cons

First, salary is not competitive! Not at all!!!! People accept the offer expecting room to grow. They got excited during the interview process, but what will happen later? A lot of fresh graduates like you are being hired while a lot of very competent professionals are being left behind. Yes, you'll become one of them. Did you do a excellent job? This is your prize: - Thank you, you are a winner!! This is your parking permite to use one of the reserved spots in our free parking building, for a month. - Yes... this the way ADC values their employees. Newbies, pay attention to this: 4.5 stars rating you see in Glassdoor was motivated by fun activities. Fun activities and parking spots don't pay mortgage or rental, they don't pay your bills, they don't move you forward in your career path! It's frustrating!! I'll be the next one leaving this company. I'd love to be here for years, but my time is over. Now I understand that ADC is like a long term internship, not a place to be for more than 2 years if your goal is the career you studied for. If you accept the job, keep studying, because most of what you learn is specific to ADC, and you'll not apply in other companies. Good luck!!!!

2.0
Jan 23, 2017

Experienced Engineer Review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Great co-workers. Everyone is very willing to extend their help to others, especially the QE's are very helpful to us. Everyone in the company is quite friendly and easy to talk to. 2. If you're a very social person, you will like the different things that happen at the office apart from work. There is a group called soco which does some fun events. 3. Office space is pretty decent and calm. Not a modern look that everyone thinks it is, but good enough. There is a very good staircase that connects all four floors internally. The office is still a maze due to it's weird structure. 4. A very good place for college graduates to work right after college but after 2-3 years if you're still doing the same thing you did in your first year, which is the case for most of them, then you should re-think about your career path. If you've done your part and worked hard but still in the same position with lower avg pay, then better to move on because the company does not want to pay more and you're just doing want they want. They don't seem to encourage engineers to move up in ranks. 5. The engineering teams try to get new tools and improve the work environment constantly when needed.

Cons

1. It's been four years since I've joined Alarm.com and there were a lot of changes that happened mostly for the good of the company and it's growth. During this growth I felt the company lost some of the core values which made me join in the first place. Though I had a better offer I joined here because I saw a potential of growth personally and few things that I genuinely thought to be cool as an engineer in a company. As an example we had innovation week's once every 3 months and you get to do something innovative in your line of work but that's not the case anymore, it's been a year almost since we had a "real" innovation week. For some reason it was decided not to do them that often. I strongly believe that innovation or creativity's roots lie in freedom and when you don't have the time to do such stuff you kind of hit a monotony in your work, which is bad because it makes you less interested and bored. 2. The parking garage finally made it to the list. Every floor has 6 speed bumps, 2 small & 4 large(in height). I wouldn't mind the small ones but the 4 large ones no matter how slow you go, it feels like you're driving over a large rock. On an average it takes 5 mins to park your car and even more to go out in the evenings, let's say 8 mins till you hit the road. It's 13 mins a day, 260 mins a month. This ends up to be 2 days and 4 hours. It's a little depressing and funny to me that I'm spending 2 days and 4 hours just for entering and exiting the garage in a year. Everyone in the company complains about the garage. 3. The pay is low, the hikes aren't that great. If you can compare using Glassdoor you might find for yourself. I found out that I was getting almost less than an average engineer in the tysons area. When I joined I had a number where I thought I'd be in 4 years and I'm no way close to that. This isn't a company that gives great hikes so if you're expecting good raises then this is not your company. It's a good pay for new comers but after 1-2 years you shouldn't be surprised that people who joined after you are getting more than you though they are fresh graduates. 4. The hierarchy is very weird. Very few people get promoted. You can see that in both the Software and Quality teams there are very few people or none who were promoted. Many people who joined long ago are still in the same position that they initially joined in. It is not that they are performing bad because I haven't seen any bad performing engineer at Alarm.com which the company should be very proud of for hiring such engineers. It's just that the HR/managers or whoever is responsible of this process isn't giving it a thought because they might be busy with their usual job duties and this subject is something that they don't think about unless a performance review comes up. Honestly I can't blame any department but there should be some set guidelines and the HR should be a more proactive about things like these. 5. Traffic around the office is really bad no matter what road you want to take. You can't leave in between 4:30 and 6 PM, it will take a good 10 mins(+8 mins garage time) to just get onto international drive or Leesburg pike. 6. Every month the company selects an employee of the month or something similar and whoever gets selected they get a parking spot for a month on level one. I'm still not sure how to react to this.....an employees effort and dedication should not be rewarded with a parking spot for a month. Give something more which is helpful to the individual. 7. Lack of proper documentation and requirements from the PM's or whoever is responsible. We end up giving to them by asking a ton of questions, writing something up rather than they giving to us, for new projects. 8. Very old version control. Waiting for the day it migrates to Git. New people joining in the company should think about what their goals, career growth will be in the company after 2-3 years of joining the company rather than thinking about the immediate year. Your personal goals and career growth will sink in between the company's poorly managed teams and the monotonous work. The work load isn't high but it's just that you'll get bored if you're a very ambitious & techie person.

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