Ancestry reviews

3.5

52% would recommend to a friend

(786 total reviews)
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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
5.0
Feb 23, 2016

Can't think of a reason to unlike

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I actually had to think hard to come up with cons, so most are actually pros. To start with, the pay is on-par with, if not slightly more generous than, other Silicon Valley companies, considering its not the name everyone talks about when finding a job here. But when you take into consideration of the benefits its definitely above average. I am just going to list them here: Unlimited paid time off, free caltrain pass, parking sub, VTA, gym sub, phone, home internet, food, snack, drink, ski lift tickets, medical, dental...... This is one of the best list of benefits you could ever get not just in the bay area, but in the world. The most important factor is the work/life balance, even senior managements want you to have consideration for your family and look after yourself. read 5pm, sharp, off work. I forgot, you get to choose any computer, desk, monitor as you wish. Which may sound normal, but you'd be surprise to hear how many companies in silicon valley don't have this luxury. In terms of talents, at the very least, everyone is very committed to their roles since they are not being pressurized. The company can afford to be selective while attracting the right people. Its a tech/internet company, so all the cool tech are being used, e.g. spark, hadoop, kafka, machine learning..... I don't have the feeling of not wanting to go to work. And yes, you can work from home at least one day per week. Career progression is just like any work place, you have people holding the same position for years, while there are people moving up grades and grades within couple of years. It all depends on you. For sure, ancestry is a household name, but its not considered one of the top tech companies. However, in the industry that its in, it beats the next competitor by miles. There is no company having 1/10 as much content as ancestry, even the government needs to work with ancestry to get content. The DNA team is second to none, the scientists there are top top notch academics and all are committed to better the product/service. The health industry is ever increasing and ancestry is right at the forefront, i have very good outlook for the company.

Cons

May be no free lunch everyday.... but there is free lunch here and there most days during the week. Free snacks and drinks all the time. Plus this is one of the best neighborhood for trendy restaurants and good food, this is just another reason to social. I know, right, how absurd it is to say no free lunch is a con. How spoiled!

3.0
Aug 12, 2015

Great company that undervalues too many of its employees

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A great product that makes a real difference in user's lives; better-than-average benefits; great coworkers passionate about the company mission.

Cons

Too much middle management; aloofness and secrecy from the senior execs; lower-than-average monetary compensation leading top talent to jump ship, leaving those behind with a heavier burden.

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 70 - 72 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.