Very dissatisfying as an engineer. Set me back by a couple of years. - Senior Software Engineer Akamai Employee Review

1.0
Apr 28, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work life balance is decent'ish. People are nice to each other. Non-toxic work environment.

Cons

Luddites rule the roost at Akamai - the thinking(often times of architects and engineering leaders) is stuck in the 80's and 90's, stubborn and insular. Being one of the earliest movers in what we now think of as the "enterprise cloud"-space, they have let so many opportunities slip by and ceded ground(and are still doing so) to a plethora of "cloud" companies who did not have that advantage. There is no vision or technical leadership to even bridge this gap, let alone break out of this cycle of building and maintaining aging, fragile and inflexible technologies & infrastructure. A lot of time is spent on reinventing the wheel with little to no benefits. I can honestly say that my time at this company was the least productive and that it did not let me grow as an engineer - in fact I feel I regressed quite a bit, being stuck in a very dysfunctional engineering culture. Final observation: I have written and submitted college assignments with more rigor and quality than some of the code that gets shipped out to production at Akamai.

Explore other reviews about Akamai

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Genuinely collaborative culture with talented, supportive colleagues across sales, marketing, and technical teams. * Strong work-life balance and flexibility compared to many companies in the cybersecurity industry. * Meaningful products and technology with a strong reputation in the market. * Employees are trusted to own their work without excessive micromanagement. * Good benefits and a people-first culture that generally prioritizes employee well-being.

Cons

As a large organization, decision-making can sometimes be slow and require alignment across multiple stakeholders. * Organizational changes and shifting priorities occasionally create uncertainty. * Cross-functional processes can be complex, which can impact speed of execution.

4.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good people and good tech

Cons

Management is completely hit or miss

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