Company culture took a negative turn over the past 12-18 months - Software Engineer Ancestry Employee Review

2.0
Mar 31, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good work/life balance, most of the company leaves around 4:30. Office is 80% empty on Fridays - Very rare encounters with immature, big ego people - Free lunch on Mondays - Good location: 2 blocks from Caltrain. Nice view of AT&T park

Cons

- Benefits and pay slightly lower than average - Quality of the code is under constant neglect. Product deadlines and marketing campaigns will always take priority over quality - Huge meetings culture. 2-4 hours a day for an individual contributor, and get worse as you grow in ranks. Team leads are so booked with meetings, many leads don't end up coding at all - Everyone avoids any type of a conflict, if you do encounter a non-compromising person on the project, there is little support for negotiating between parties - Dev teams' opinion of direction of project is rarely taken into account - Stock options is a privilege of only Director level and above - In 2018, Senior Team laid off around 10% of engineers without consulting managers and with no explanation whatsoever. Only mentioned it wasn't financial or performance reasons, but keep hiring for the same positions - Annual re-org and re-invent of scrum with shuffling teams and people around throws off team cohesion

Explore other reviews about Ancestry

5.0
Jun 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great company culture, supportive team, smooth onboarding process, strong career stability, and meaningful work. My interview experience was very positive, and the recruiting and onboarding teams were helpful, responsive, and professional throughout the process.

Cons

There is always a learning curve when joining a new company, especially while understanding internal systems and processes, but the team has been very supportive.

3.0
Jun 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It’s a great product and people are customer obsessed.

Cons

Misogyny is baked in to the culture.

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