Adobe: a good company, could be great - Lead Software Engineer Adobe Employee Review

3.0
Feb 20, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work environment(gym tt, nice field, flexible work hours), nice technical people, great facilities, encouraged to file patents, top 10% salary, great food. Good work life balance. Cutting edge technology

Cons

Internal politics, treating QA as second citizens. Poor middle management. Poor leadership quality in middle management. Trying to grab spotlight for things that you even did not do yourself. Not much importance to values. It you want to grow fast, and work with the management on goals of your own, for a QA it does not seem possible. Have patience and let them decide, when they wanna promote you. Yo u cannot take charge of your career on your own.

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5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

all good things considered to work here

Cons

often times, it can feel pretty boring

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Refreshing focus on employee wellness * Brilliant colleagues * Compelling problems on interesting tools * Good work/life balance culture... generally (see cons) I've been at a few big tech companies and Adobe is one of my favorites. I feel empowered to make impactful changes here, I'm constantly stretching myself in fun ways, and the products we make are incredible. Product and engineering have big dreams, and all the resources we need to realize them.

Cons

* Big time crunch culture around arbitrary goals By far my biggest disappointment has been just how hard product pushes on big projects with arbitrary deadlines and difficult scope. It turns into cutting corners and delivering sub-par experiences even though we absolutely have the talent and capability to make some exceptional things if we just let the dang thing bake a few more months. I'd be more impressed with the tight clip if the goals were reasonable for good business reasons, but as far as I can tell the reason usually boils down to "some high-level manager wanted X and thought Y sounded like a good target date". * Comp growth leaves something to be desired. Raises feel pretty flat, though it's not the worst thing since stock rewards can be pretty good as appropriate for performance. Career progression is pretty good here too - I just find it odd how stale the base pay increases are year to year.

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