New ugly side - Senior Software Engineer Adobe Employee Review

1.0
Dec 21, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Been here over 8 years and had a great ride. Considered top talent and been well-compensated. Stock price has really appreciated. I've contributed to multiple new products generating $100M+ annually and a handful of new patents. As a female engineering leader I feel I've been treated equally relative to my male peers which isn't the case elsewhere. Fantastic people, excellent company culture, successful business & operating model.

Cons

The last two years have brought out a new ugly side of Adobe, unfortunately. Executive leadership is all in California resulting in insular thinking and is clearly being more open about their support of left-leaning politics. My peers in other locations feel our leaders lack awareness of different perspectives, lifestyles and experiences of employees across the United States. Being in CA myself its harder to understand this but in recent months I can see what they're talking about. Examples include Adobe's prompt action to subject itself to President Biden's ETS vaccine mandate seemingly before the ink had dried. During my team here Adobe has never, I repeat, NEVER been a front-runner on any issues involving difficult decisions and significant change... but rather we conservatively and prudently wait to see what other major tech players do along with the consequences, and then follow suit or act differently if appropriate. In the case of ETS, many other tech companies and large employers are waiting for this controversial issue to play out in the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court before imposing what can be such a life/career-changing requirement on their employees. But contrary to the Adobe I've grown to love, it feels its appropriate to force all employees - remote or not - to vaccination NOW regardless of current and future court outcomes. And another example: occasionally, we deliberately 'over-rotate' with our diversity and inclusion efforts resulting in obvious reverse discrimination in our hiring practices and development opportunities, but leadership casually sweeps it under the rug. Its painful to write such a review about a company with 9 great things to every 1 drawback, but these drawbacks are inexcusable and SO uncharacteristic of our Adobe-4-All mantra.

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5.0
Jun 10, 2026
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Pros

all good things considered to work here

Cons

often times, it can feel pretty boring

5.0
Jun 8, 2026
Recommend
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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.

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