Good Employer, but lots of corporate red tape - Artist Adobe Employee Review

4.0
Jan 16, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pays very well. Great Benefits Excellent people Tons of budget for gear, travel, etc.. very high job security (Adobe doesn't fire, they tighten budgets) Good, clear job progression

Cons

This differs between departments, but my experience as an acqui-hire is that things have gotten less efficient the more we integrate into the Adobe way of doing things. Systems get moved and all of a sudden it takes 2 weeks and involving multiple teams and stakeholders to get anything done (compared to 2 hours by myself before). That can be fine if things scale accordingly, but with the current tight hiring and budget restrictions it just leads to more work and less satisfaction for us. Coupled with what feels like a lot of teams are just dealing more with their own agenda, or at least supporting flagship products, you can feel like a small cog in the machine, barely able to make a difference. There's also the ever-present shareholder driven need to grow, even a 30x revenue scale in 5 years doesn't cut it. It doesn't affect you much if you're not in sales or senior leadership, but you do start to notice the effects when strategies change, products get cut, etc.. People talk about work-life balance being great, but working across time-zones does mean you might have to take meetings at inopportune hours, it's just very hard to avoid if your role requires it. Also if you're part of an acqui-hire, negotiate your wages more! Many of us were grossly underpaid for years. New hires might get almost double of what they'd offer you.

Explore other reviews about Adobe

5.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very good people to work with

Cons

Stock not doing well at at this time due to AI concerns

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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