Pros

Good people to work with. Used to provide great benefit but I am not sure now. This company invented the greatest software Illustrator and Photoshop. So many great developers and smart people. Nice work environment in SF and SJ.

Cons

Too many jobs are sent to India and China, and layoffs in US. The company straggles to invent the next big thing.

Advice to Senior Management

Adobe management team depends on 3rd party consulting companies and yet repeating the same thing over and over. It seems like the company just wants to be "big" not "innovative" or "creative".

Pros

Hands down the best pay in Utah Valley, Employees are well taken care of, Biggest tech company in Utah, Excellent Management.

Cons

I would say that the only con i have is that with the Adobe acquisition the company has lost some of the fun and spontaneous edge it had as Omniture

Advice to Senior Management

I would say that if they want to keep their employees happy please continue to keep the unique culture that made Omniture great.

Pros

Benefits
Work life balance
Products are great!

Cons

Every year after operations planning, there seems to be some sort of layoffs (either big or small).
It is expected. Hard to work this way for a long time.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to help employees who are on projects that are not being invested in the next year to find another home before letting them go.

Pros

Great salary, generally not as stressful as other tech companies. Good work-life balance. Flexible about working from home.

Cons

No vacation accrual. A new policy starting 2010, you are given sick time, but longer than say 3 days requires a doctors note. Vacation time is given at the discretion of your manager. Employees previously receiving quarterly bonuses and quarterly profit sharing will no longer receive either in 2010. Bonuses will be once a year and considerably less than in previous years.
Products are legacy and unimaginative. Adobe is definitely not on the cutting edge of technology.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop allowing executives to have 'pet' projects--developing products with their own agenda that do not necessarily play into the overall mission of the company.

Pros

--excellent compensation
--private offices
--flexible policies
--diverse workforce
--fun products
--good on your resume

Cons

--many managers are promoted as a reward for time at the company--*not* for competence or true management ability
--in some areas, teams actively dislike each other (and even within some teams) and management either ignores or is helpless to solve the problems

Advice to Senior Management

Less time should be spent paying lip-service to political correctness, and more to relations among coworkers--and set some standards and training for your management in how to manage people

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.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the technology and areas the company is known for. There is tremendous opportunity in digital imaging, video, and audio as well as in Flash. For many Flash is a solution looking for a problem. Get back to solving existing problems for customers please.

Pros

- Very smart developers
- Good work.
- Work life balance
- Very good managers

Cons

- Compensation differs a lot between teams ! The money making teams make a lot more than other teams.
- Lot of difference between teams.

Advice to Senior Management

Although flash and related products are not key money making products for Adobe, these are very important for overall company strategy. Please compensate the employees equally for these products, otherwise talented employees will start looking elsewhere.

Pros

Still great work, one of the best places in NCR to work
Good facilities
Reasonable work life balance
Good compensation

Cons

Not much growth especially for mid-level people
Company is not growing as much as it used to
Bureaucracy at senior levels
Some teams have not so good work, some teams have no visibility, growth depends on luck and hard work

Advice to Senior Management

Take the growth of your employees seriously

Pros

- Very reasonable hours; I almost never work weekends (only about once a year during "crunch time").
- Very friendly place to work, not at all confrontational or competitive.
- People at Adobe are less nerdy than at some other companies, perhaps due to all the design-oriented products that the company makes.
- I think the company is in a fairly good place in terms of future growth potential.
- Steep discounts (about as steep as you can get) on all those great Adobe products.

Cons

- Although my peers are pretty good programmers, they are not as good as the people I used to work with at another large software company.
- Adobe is not the kind of place that is "changing the world" in the way that Apple and Google are.

Advice to Senior Management

Adobe really should do a better job at college hiring. I feel that we seldom get the top-notch students from the nation's top computer science universities. There are some awesome people coming out of these schools, and Adobe should be trying to get more of them.

Pros

Great salaries and benefits
Genuine commitment to the environment
Strong employee volunteer program
Smart, friendly people
Some great innovative programs
Cool products that people are passionate about

Cons

Change can be slow because the company is big
HR is friendly but somewhat out of touch

Advice to Senior Management

Get some stronger staff in HR