Ancestry reviews

3.5

52% would recommend to a friend

(786 total reviews)
avatar

Howard Hochhauser

80% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Ancestry has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 786 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Ancestry employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

786 reviews
1.0
Nov 25, 2018

Duck and Cover

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some really nice people Some good opportunities to try new things Decent pay and benefits 9-4 with hour lunch and hour in the gym Unlimited PTO Many very competent employees

Cons

The reorg was so bad, with the random layoffs and forcing people to certain teams, that upper management (not leadership) refuses to hold management accountable. It is sad to see friends suffer from the hands of managers that should never have been promoted. It is depressing watching people's passion that they once held die. I witnessed ordinary people try to help with the reorg, only to be told it wasn't their job by poor middle managers. I have seen people's project change almost weekly because people can't get their act together. If a manager or a situation is so bad, you have to force people to stay on a team, they will leave. While many left, there are still a lot of great people. Many have just taken the duck and cover approach. Gossip is now much more common. You may be hired on to a team with a great manager but then be forced to work for a bad one, with no way out. I feel bad for a friend who got out from the domain of a very poor middle manager only to have that manger transferred to their new one, after decimating their previous one. I saw another friend beg for help from his manager with a personal conflict only to have the manager and the manager's manager refuse to intervene for over six months. The best advice is to stop caring, if you can. Leave if you can't.

1.0
Oct 6, 2021

Mass exit in product

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Ancestry has had leadership ups-and-downs through the years, often brought on by changes in investors. At the forefront, the company day-to-day is executed by a team of passionate, talented individuals both in product, design, and engineering. My review would have been glowing with positivity 6 months ago, which is sad given the time I spent at Ancestry, in spite of several changes in leadership over the years. (Over five years)

Cons

The latest change of C-level leadership has been chaotic, at best. The new CEO comes across as uncaring and robotic, though she oddly has a mass following on social media which is sadly attracting candidates to Ancestry for the wrong reasons. She connects with her social media following through her blog posts more than she connects with the real people she works with. A newly appointed CPO lacks experience to run a product of this magnitude, seems to have had an "in" with the CEO in order to get the role, and has directly attributed to a significant level of disruption and attrition across mid-level leadership. Many talented individuals have left taking years of product knowledge with them.

1.0
May 5, 2019

Unethical Leadership

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They do have nice benefits.

Cons

I find the leadership to either be be mostly unethical, or obliviously to their behavior.

Viewing 31 - 33 of 786 Reviews

Glassdoor has 910 Ancestry reviews submitted anonymously by Ancestry employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Ancestry is right for you.