Nice place to work but insular teams and management flailing - Front Line Manager Adobe Employee Review

4.0
Mar 20, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great genuine people (and the ones that aren't are easy to pick out). Product stability. Household name. Yearly layoffs are more-or-less a thing of the past. Getting a bit more nimble, some by intentional change, some by acquisition. Racial diversity (esp. US citizen & black men) has grown quite a bit over the last couple years, much due to acquisition.

Cons

A lot of flailing as to strategy rather than a solid strategy with changing tactics. Currently involved in building a lot of little questionable use apps and hoping some of them turn into something big. Many projects are being seen as "Well, we can add it as another feature for the Creative Cloud" but that's not adding significant "need" value. Those products are in danger of become bloatware with support drag. Teams also end up frequently product hopping and going through re-orgs, which could be healthy but Adobe/Macromedia had such strong developer identification with their product-silo that it ends up being more traumatic.

Explore other reviews about Adobe

5.0
Jul 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company, great culture and supportive people.

Cons

Products are great but AI wave is hitting the company hard

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Refreshing focus on employee wellness * Brilliant colleagues * Compelling problems on interesting tools * Good work/life balance culture... generally (see cons) I've been at a few big tech companies and Adobe is one of my favorites. I feel empowered to make impactful changes here, I'm constantly stretching myself in fun ways, and the products we make are incredible. Product and engineering have big dreams, and all the resources we need to realize them.

Cons

* Big time crunch culture around arbitrary goals By far my biggest disappointment has been just how hard product pushes on big projects with arbitrary deadlines and difficult scope. It turns into cutting corners and delivering sub-par experiences even though we absolutely have the talent and capability to make some exceptional things if we just let the dang thing bake a few more months. I'd be more impressed with the tight clip if the goals were reasonable for good business reasons, but as far as I can tell the reason usually boils down to "some high-level manager wanted X and thought Y sounded like a good target date". * Comp growth leaves something to be desired. Raises feel pretty flat, though it's not the worst thing since stock rewards can be pretty good as appropriate for performance. Career progression is pretty good here too - I just find it odd how stale the base pay increases are year to year.

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