Turnitin reviews

4.2

83% would recommend to a friend

(300 total reviews)
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Chris Caren

98% approve of CEO

78% positive business outlook

Turnitin has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 300 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Turnitin employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

300 reviews
1.0
Dec 8, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are some generally wonderful people at Turnitin, although a vast majority of them are leaving in droves.

Cons

Where to start? Turnitin is not like any other tech company. Whereas other Bay Area tech companies value entrepreneurship, growth, and risk-taking, Turnitin is run by a conservative c-suite that rarely takes meaningful risks and has little interest in making a large scale impact in the Ed Tech field. This is a company that sells software to schools, not a true Ed Tech company; there is a difference. The technology is ancient and riddled with tech debt. In addition, the engineering team has a tough time taking on meaningful projects because they spend most of their time and resources maintaining a relic of a tech stack that's littered with vestigial code and a database that requires an ungodly level of SQL knowledge to make any meaningful queries. And how about the culture? Turnitin is a company that makes large decisions behind closed doors and rarely involves rank and file employees with decisions that directly impact them. I remember that time they decided to develop core values - seemingly overnight - foist them upon the employees, and rarely bring them up in the future. While the CEO is a well meaning person, he's rarely involved in the well-being of individual contributors and there is a major disconnect between him and the rest of the org. The overall culture is politically toxic - I'm not the first reviewer to mention this - and any semblance of a meritocracy is a thinly veiled attempt to hide a company and managerial team that has real issues identifying and retaining top industry talent. As acidic as this may sound, you have to wonder why the median age at Turnitin is so much higher than the rest of the industry. Young talent is not fostered and new thinking - which the company desperately needs - is never given a voice. In terms of career growth, there's little to none. Leveling charts are few and far between and there is no actual commitment to lateral or vertical movement of employees. This would explain why people are leaving the company in order to actually move into roles that challenge and suit them. Capable employees are fired arbitrarily and "lifers" are kept onboard regardless of their ability. This is a company where people go to cash out, not begin their careers. So, avoid this company. Work somewhere where you feel needed and where you'll actually have room to grow.

1.0
Aug 9, 2016

Very high risk

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good place if you report directly to C-Suite.

Cons

Minus those the report to C-suite, employees are not valued HR promotes a culture of fear and is not open to feedback - expect some form of indirect retaliation that may never cross the line of harassment but will make anyone feel very uncomfortable Inappropriate health benefits were offered to employees during open enrollment (HSA offered when employees were not eligible) with little or no help from the Company when employees tried to unwind the mistake - employees lost lots of money (with the Company trying to sweep the issue under the rug) Minus one or two good leaders (that the Company lost), senior leadership does not demonstrate true leadership, is often highly sarcastic and leaves managers to unwind and decipher messages that are not clear - unfortunately, C-suite lets it happen and hasn't done much to prevent it resulting in the loss of quality employees No career path Lots of covering up of serious morale and trust issues related to a lack of basic professionalism No work/life balance - do not ever expect to work from home (that is only reserved for those that report to C-suite) and expect to receive lots of pressure for any flexibility Control and individual contributors more important that any sense of team - very high risk as senior leadership will ignore the team's suggestions and the team is often stuck unwinding a big mess.

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Turnitin Response
9y
I am very sorry that you had a negative experience during your tenure at Turnitin, and appreciate the feedback. We strive to be flexible and understanding of employee needs, and to the degree that wasn’t your personal experience, it’s regrettable and I apologize. We offer competitive benefits generally, and while not every position offers the flexibility to work remotely, we do our best to balance the needs of the business with the needs of our team members. As you know, the HSA issue you reference was a mistake on part of our vendor, and we committed to keeping our employees whole. I believe we have done that, but if you feel that you are out of pocket, get back in touch and we’ll certainly make that right.
1.0
Jul 23, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Healthy snacks. Some smart, dedicated people scattered throughout the company. The only real claim they can make is a promise of: 'Work / Life Balance' because they don't have much to offer career wise and there are no real options to advance within the company. This is an easy claim since there is not much of a challenge to the work and rarely do you actually have a full days amount of work. The hardest part of the job is dealing with the internal mismanagement and culture police.

Cons

Low pay, lack of growth, politics and terrible management. Most of the ambitious, smart and qualified folks have been run off by overwhelming pettiness, politics and outright drama inside the sales department. There is a odd combination of 'floaters' (people who don't carry any internal drive) and C-student bullies (people who get ahead by putting others down) leading to a environment of mediocrity where merit does not count for anything. The culture is one of confirmation bias. If you are like 'us', then you will be OK. If you are not like the 'us'; you can expect the mean-girl squad to blatantly say cruel things about you and spread rumors about you without any help from HR. This is a classic 'tool-box' sales environment. Management are hammers. To a hammer; everything is a nail. We all know what happens to nails (they get hammered into submission or until they break). This place is moving backward against the flow of history. Back to a time of old sales cultures. Where everyone looked the same, acted the same and if you speak out of turn; you are labeled a 'loose cannon'. They provoke people to talk about each other behind their backs and to have 'private' meetings with management..only increasing the confirmation bias. Monoculture is the culture.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 300 Reviews

Glassdoor has 317 Turnitin reviews submitted anonymously by Turnitin employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Turnitin is right for you.