Coalfire is mediocre at best... - Penetration Tester Coalfire Employee Review

2.0
29 Apr 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Coalfire is a great place to start your offensive security journey...keyword is start. Easy to just collect a paycheck and act like your a cool hacker. The people are welcoming and most are good to work with. There were many employee groups to get involved in. The CEO is a good person and does care about employees.

Cons

Disclaimer: I can only speak of my experience in Coalfire Labs (pentesting). Not everyone working as a penetration tester actually has the necessary skills and/or knowledge to perform the job or inform clients properly. Many of the people without those skills were hired anyway. Coalfire gradually pigeonholes it's pentesters with weeks/months of one type of engagment which left them frustrated and feeling like they're becoming one-dimensional. Some managers were very unprofessional and would likely cause HR issues in most other organizations. Some managers flat out shouldn't be managers, but they've simply been there long enough. Coalfire went on a "100 new hires in 100 days" campaign which suggests their lack of understanding what the process of hiring professionals really means.

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Coalfire Response
6y
First, thank you for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate your unique experience and perspective. We’re glad you took advantage of our CoalFun program and enjoyed getting to know your Labs colleagues through events like last year’s team offsite in Puerta Vallarta. We review over 100+ resumes for each hire made to our Labs team. Candidates participate in multiple interviews and have to get through our technical panel before we extend an offer. While no recruiting process is perfect, our approach has proven to work well – after all, we hired you! However, we are always working to improve, and we would be open to any recommendations you’re willing to share. By design, Coalfire loves to see career advancement, values loyalty, and invests in extensive management training for all our managers. We also acknowledge that balancing the variety of engagements is indeed a common challenge for all pen testing firms. To address this, Coalfire has a system in place to ensure team members rotate onto various projects to diversify skillsets and exposure. It is disappointing to hear about your specific experience shared, and we’d like to hear more to understand how we can do better. If you’re willing to share, please reach out directly to askmeanything@coalfire.com.

Explore other reviews about Coalfire

5.0
29 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great benefits, variety of job functions and service offerings Excellent organizational and management structure Highly intelligent and effective workforce

Cons

Competitive hiring process due to quality of talent the company attracts.

3.0
24 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Real client-facing technical work in regulated/FedRAMP environments; good exposure if compliance-heavy cloud is your lane. - Internal mobility exists on paper; managers may encourage internal candidates for promotions. - New management clearly understands their assignment and is saying the right things and taking initial steps that appear to be moving us towards a strong path forward.

Cons

- Promotion paths can be unstable; roles may get restructured mid-process, which makes career planning hard. - Management quality is uneven; promotion into management isn't always tied to demonstrated leadership, technical capability, or appropriate vision. - Limited structured professional development. - Compensation progression can be a friction point, including for internal moves. - Bonus payouts have come in far below target even for top performers, which has been rough.

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