Great technical company - Software Engineer Canonical Employee Review

5.0
Dec 5, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

At some companies, there are always a few people that obviously can't hack it, and yet somehow are able to coast. Not at Canonical. If you can't hack it, you're going to end up leaving, because we move at such a rapid pace. The work is interesting, there are always new opportunities and new problems to solve. It's hard to be bored here.

Cons

There tends to be a fluctuation in what Canonical is focusing on, because they are so young. Sometimes they aren't focusing in the right way, sometimes they are focusing to broadly, and sometimes it takes a few months to realize there's an adjustment needed (but it *always* happens, and we work through it).

Explore other reviews about Canonical

5.0
Apr 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

very good. happy so far

Cons

could be better, like the time of application to final round

2.0
Jan 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

> Highly visible open source company > O.K. pay and benefits > Twice yearly trips to interesting locations > Intelligent and mostly caring colleagues > Getting to put Canonical on your resume will help your career

Cons

> Toxic leadership style trickles down to the middle management. They're ruthless and single-minded (and extremely intelligent) at the top, and those seem to be the traits that get people promoted. The promotion process is also hilariously involved, and if you don't perform they'll demote you. > Insane interview process - mine took something like four months to complete, represented like 40+ hours of my time, and was considered average. > Twice yearly trips for grueling weeklong sprints. > The company only hires the best so, if you're used to being very good at your job, here you'll only be average at best. > Stack ranking - bottom X% of employees after each biannual review are placed on a PIP. > From what I saw, there are no "personality hires". Morale is expected to be derived solely from the company-paid work trips and the experience of getting paid to create open source software. Maybe this is unavoidable for full-remote companies, but it gets gloomy. > The video-on calls with your team and other teams will take up several hours of every single day, good luck finding time to actually get your work done during the day.

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