Was a great place a few years ago, now its so so. - Computer Scientist Adobe Employee Review

3.0
19 Jan 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent pay, many very smart people who care about the products. There are opportunities to learn with lectures and if you are lucky, conferences. The Adobe name is recognized for quality and good products and there is some prestige associated with working here.

Cons

Long hours, tight deadlines, ever decreasing workforce and offshoring of projects. The management, with the acquisition of Macromedia a few years ago, has become obsessed with Flash, AIR, and enterprise software. Unfortunately, this is leaving a lot of brilliant engineers who have worked long and hard at making Adobe what it is with Photoshop, Illustrator, et al, feeling frustrated and left behind. On top of this Adobe has laid off an enormous number of people from these key areas in the last couple years and shuffled portions to India and now China. If you are a US employee it is difficult not to have the sinking feeling the ax is going to fall at any moment. The company has also recently changed their long standing excellent PTO and benefits and under the new system employees get sick time, fixed holidays and shutdowns, and additional time off "at the discretion of your manager." I really don't mind the changes except for the loss of rea PTO for vacations. HR says you haven't lost vacation but if your manager is highly strung like mine taking a vacation might be difficult. In summary - Adobe was a great place with innovative ideas and excellent engineering as its priorities. Now, the Flash platform is the top priority and frankly I have my doubts its will succeed.

Explore other reviews about Adobe

5.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

all good things considered to work here

Cons

often times, it can feel pretty boring

5.0
8 Jun 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.

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