People-focused and surprisingly forward thinking company leveraging industry-leading software to drive innovation - Senior Program Manager Adobe Employee Review

5.0
18 Jan 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People focused: Adobe really makes it a real priority to retain good people. What's different, at Adobe, is you can be rewarded for deep area expertise alone. There doesn't seem to be a press to discover everybody's path to Senior VP. Instead, if you do a great job and your talents are needed, Adobe will try to keep you. Strong rewards: pay is equitable if not better than peer companies. ESPP, in particular, is ridiculously good. Health care is similar to most high tech companies but they do offer pet insurance which is somewhat unique. Management: very open, addressable; feels like a small company at times. True performance-based review process: no bizarre stack rank, no funky "grades", just a straightforward conversation with your manager about how you've done and where you're going. Work/Life is second to none: Need time off? Take it! No limit on PTO. The simple agreement is, simply, make sure your job is taken care of.

Cons

Things can be a little frenetic. As Adobe shifts from the old to the new, some plans come in at the last minute. Hierarchical career movement may be limited. Org structures are pretty flat so, while your scope of influence may grow, you might stay in the same spot in the chain of command for some time. There is some discipline-specific segregation, typical of a mature software company (e.g., testers only do this, marketing people only do that, etc). I think this is more of a holdover culture from older employees as I don't see any segregation coming from higher levels.

Explore other reviews about Adobe

5.0
10 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

all good things considered to work here

Cons

often times, it can feel pretty boring

4.0
16 June 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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