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Edelman Financial Engines

Engaged Employer

Come here only if you want to relax and do nothing - Software Engineer Edelman Financial Engines Employee Review

1.0
Aug 20, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If you want to relax and do not want to do anything this is the best place for you. People are nice to each other, most of them have been here for their life time. Lately they are spending money for almost any software they hear about (unfortunately they do not have even 1% expertise in using those solutions). It would be unfair to not give credit for the good office building, descent cafe, and really helpful facilities people.

Cons

I am taking some time before writing this review to be able to do a fair job. This is possibly one of the worst place to work in bay area from growth prospective. Engineering is a myth around here, people are rewarded for their time spent here with promotions instead of talent. The ironical part is that almost every one in the company is an applications architect and almost none of them knows about application servers or the infrastructure. Most of them have worked with only one or two applications for their entire life time so its not hard to tell the reason. To be fair to them, they have adapted to the culture to earn those positions. Sounds more like selling your soul to the devil. The applications original architecture is not so bad if one can see through it, clearly the people who wrote it had a vision in mind. But down the line people abused the code without understanding which is why it is in such a pathetic state today. There is no scope of learning and improving your skillet unless you are a self learner, forget about possibility of changing anything at all. A lot of people make a living by acting as guard dogs to the entries of different resources, no wonder they have a job security. Classical example is the devops/sysops. Traditionally these roles are for the support where they help engineers with the system administration and provisioning of resources. Unfortunately they have taken the reins in their hands for the technology because the technical leadership is non existent. Their goal is to avoid any new additions to their work load which effectively means scuttling any new product or application by any possible means. Almost for everything they have a suggestion to make which is buying some solutions off the shelf instead of writing any code for one simple reason - they do not have to maintain anything. The root cause is not hard to find. The executives here have made enough money and they do not have any ambitions to change the state of the things. Its definitely in their best interests to continue this as long as they can.

Explore other reviews about Edelman Financial Engines

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great firm if you are in to sales

Cons

Very high fee and the clients are not happy

3.0
Mar 2, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Pros Edelman provides strong exposure to retirement planning conversations and a fast-paced environment that builds customer service and communication skills quickly. The training and structure help you learn processes, systems, and compliance expectations. You get repetition with real client scenarios, and some teammates are genuinely supportive and knowledgeable.

Cons

The job can feel like a constant sprint. Metrics and monitoring often outweigh judgment and quality, and performance management can feel punitive rather than developmental. Leadership quality varies widely; the experience can depend heavily on your direct manager. Turnover and burnout felt common in the teams I observed.

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Edelman Financial Engines Response
1mo
Thank you for taking the time to share such detailed and balanced feedback. We’re glad to hear you found the training and early exposure to client conversations valuable, and that the structure helped build core skills. We also appreciate the candid perspective on workload, metrics, and leadership consistency. These are areas we continue to evaluate as we work to better balance performance expectations with sustainability, development, and a consistent management experience. Feedback like this is important in helping us strengthen how we support and coach our teams.
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