Workday Software Development Engineer reviews

3.6

62% would recommend to a friend

(77 total reviews)
avatar

Aneel Bhusri

100% approve of CEO

41% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer employees have rated Workday with 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 77 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. Workday is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

77 reviews
1.0
Sep 29, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Easy to land a job right out of college as a software engineer Can easily go on cruise control if thats your thing Unlimited PTO Flexible wfh policy

Cons

Coming here right out of college as a SDE really set me back in terms of my skills and my career path. The biggest obstacle is using xpresso, workday's proprietary language that is specifically designed to make building workday application features very VERY easy. Try explaining xpresso during interviews - you will be met with a lot of confused looks. It is also a skill that isn't transferrable and it silos you as an engineer - you don't get exposed to the full SDLC nor do you get exposed to industry standard technologies and practices. Too many engineering managers are questionable at best. MANY of them do NOT know how to code, nor do they have technical knowledge of how software is developed. QA is a complete joke, many QA / automation engineers don't have engineering backgrounds, workday gets away with this because WATS (another proprietary tool) is a super straight forward GUI point and click tool to write test scripts...which is why if you want a career in engineering, you most definitely do NOT want to join as QA. Obviously, most of my cons are targeted towards career and skill development. Workday's hiring bar is INCREDIBLY low, don't be fooled by getting an offer from them while you are still in college. Also, due to their rapid hiring - their culture that they were once known for is also rapidly deteriorating, maybe the higher ups don't really care since the stock price has surged?

2.0
Jun 19, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- great people, they do a pretty good job of hiring people who would fit in with the team so people like to work together - work life balance and benefits are solid, but cafeteria and gym are not free - lots of young people - put on nice events once in a while (star wars showings every year, company meetings, etc.) - stocks and unlimited PTO

Cons

- management lacks training and self-awareness - no real feedback or way to give constructive criticism; feedback system is mostly for giving each other compliments for visibility - promotion standards are not aligned across the company, I have friends who got promoted within their first year, but on my team no one was promoted for 2 years - XO is not a transferrable skill for software developers and I believe it hinders if not hurts your career - at least on my team, it felt like my individual career and growth was not important as long as the team pushed out work and the work was not stimulating or matched any of our talented team members’ strengths - location

5.0
Mar 12, 2018

New grad

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I love my team. Compared to my previous job at a mid-sized technology company in the Bay Area, Workday employees in general make you feel totally welcome. The culture is more family oriented, rather than obnoxious tech-bro culture, which gives way for a ton of work-life flexibility and balance. Pay is great too, I am making in an entry level position the same amount as my peers in big 4 companies. Stock is also on the rise too, which adds even more to the pay. I have flexibility in the projects that I can work on, and my manager always makes sure to meet all of my needs.

Cons

Could use a higher 401k match, but other than that, nothing to complain about.

Viewing 67 - 69 of 77 Reviews

Glassdoor has 5,127 Workday reviews submitted anonymously by Workday employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Workday is right for you.