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
3.0
Jun 21, 2015

Great mission but declining work place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great mission, useful product - Good business model - DNA product has potential - Leader in the industry - Recognizable brand - Unlimited vacation policy - Nice office and benefits - Easy company to be at, especially if you have a family

Cons

- Political environment. Need to play the game and kiss up to people to get things done or advance your career. - Top heavy company. Senior people are in meetings all day. Junior people do 90% of the work and then each layer in the hierarchy makes some edits to add value. Unfortunately, company seems to value people who can't execute above the people doing the actual work. Example: senior people already get equity when they join the company, and if they try to leave, company throws more cash and equity at them. Junior people don't get equity these days (and if they do, it's not enough to matter), and if they try to leave, company doesn't do much to try to retain them. - Retention issue. Recently a bunch of people in multiple departments left. In teams where there is barely anyone left, company gave promotions to get them to stick around longer. Should have focused on retention in the first place instead of reacting to it. - Program Management is stuck-up because they prioritize your projects. They should be held accountable for keeping projects on track. - Work environment isn't always professional. - Limited career growth. Company always encourages lateral movement. A lot of promotions happened because those people threatened to leave and their team was already short staffed, so the company had to give them something to keep them around. - Senior leadership only wants honest feedback if it's positive. - People are generally comfortable but not motivated. Excluding senior management, the smart/ambitious people have left or are planning on leaving. People who are still there are new, have settled or can't find a job elsewhere. - Unless you're coming in as at least a director, you'll be working hard to make people at the top rich once the company sells itself.

4.0
Jun 12, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive salary and benefits Excellent work/life balance. Little overtime Better than most companies for politics/drama DNA business looks promising Lots of smart and kind people

Cons

Many false starts on speculative projects No equity-based compensation A habit of following fads/trends, often after they've already played out elsewhere Genealogy business may not have much future growth There is very little energy. People seem happy but not excited.

4.0
Jun 5, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Strong products that are still ahead of the competition - Exciting opportunities with DNA-based products - More friendly than average - Meaningful work with a positive and well-known public image - Mangers generally have good intentions - Some interesting and inspiring leaders in the mix - Often trying to make the right product and technical decisions - Easy to have hobbies and outside interests while working here

Cons

- Slightly inbred culture that is passive aggressive towards each other and especially to outsiders - Inability to solve conflict in ways that are both direct and healthy - Less of a meritocracy than you'd expect of a company of this size...lots of burned-out people from the good-old-days that appear to have "tenure" - The sale of the company (and the corresponding conversion of equity from paper equity to real equity) is the primary focus of management. It's great if that objective happens to overlap with what customers want, but it's not required from their perspective - sale value rules the day. - A lot of fat in the company (although getting better). People put in about 70% of the effort that you'd expect. Working extra or overtime is almost unheard of and I doubt most people could even do it if asked. - Many nonconstructive complainers in the company and management that sometimes enables and panders to that type of behavior - Occasionally inexperienced middle managers who try to reinvent solutions to problems that have been solved long ago...plenty of experimentation with esoteric org structures and processes, for example being treated as "innovation" - An important fraction of the technical staff openly opposes leaning new technology - the first time I've ever observed this - Somewhat boring environment, library-quiet with less collaboration than you might be used to. - You can easily feel like you are getting weaker instead of stronger. - Legal and HR departments lean towards being ineffective and possibly even vindictive

Viewing 691 - 693 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.