Was Once a Great Place to Work Then OK and Now On It's Way to the Bottom of the Barrel - Senior Computer Scientist Adobe Employee Review

1.0
Oct 9, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

At one time Adobe was a great innovative company. There are still some technically challenging and interesting projects to work on if you are in one of the right groups. A lot of smart people to work with and in some areas leaders in the field.

Cons

Management is perpetually confused and running back and forth with yet a new direction every other year and in the years between complete new directions they change the way that they are implementing the direction they chose last year. Employees have to be very careful of what projects they are working on when the direction changes or you'll be out the door in the (almost) annual Christmas layoff. Benefits continue to be cut to the point that there is no longer any guaranteed paid time off but only a possibility of a couple of weeks at the discretion of your manager (no accrual, no guarantees, no liability if you leave or are laid off). There is no consistency in promotions and a number of managers run their own little fief-doms where they implement their own promotion policies (i.e. promoting women only).

Explore other reviews about Adobe

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Awesome culture. I love going to work every day. People are really nice - exciting to be in the industry where a lot of innovation is happening - good work life balance - flexible RTO - two one-week shutdowns per year, unlimited PTO, global wellness days, great benefits

Cons

- Leadership lost its way. Missed huge opportunities in markets served by Canva and GenAI. Took the wrong bet on commercially safe models, missing out on huge opportunities that were captured by competing GenAI models. No clear strategy or vision from management about how to get back in track. Our products are losing market share every day and management seems to be lime deer in headlights, unsure what to do - Watching stock price deflating nearly every day is disheartening - Decision making is very slow. Takes ages to get things approved. - C-suite is mostly over 50 and often seem out of touch with latest AI and tech trends. Uphill battle sometimes to get them to see urgent opportunities that need to be acted on immediately - Adobe failed to organically develop major products in the last 20 years. Major recent ones; Firefly and Express; have not been successful.

3.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great opportunity to learn from incredibly smart people, many opportunities to continue education, great for independent workers, not so for entry

Cons

Upper management forgets that first line managers need training. You need a thick skin to survive them

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All