Autodesk Reviews

Pros

- provides good benefits & decent wages
- supports a flexible work schedule
- allows casual attire
- get to work with good, bright, hard-working people

Cons

- poor management - support self-interests over employees and company, director titles are given out like old assistant vp titles - too many and without merit or purpose, micro-management - directives without discussions, lack of support for creativity except in a few lucky departments
- politics and manipulation win and hr supports managers, even bad managers
- it is a software company without a technical training program
- limited opportunities for promotion

Advice to Senior Management

- flatten the organization - eliminate many needlesss director positions
- provide safe channels for communication between bottom positions to top - not through filters of middle management
- provide training for your technical employees - they build your products

Pros

Most people are great to work with. Friendly, helpful and cooperative.

Cons

My manager wasn't the best.

Advice to Senior Management

Need most structure and accountability.

Pros

The product portfolio is strong, and the company strategy is sound. Autodesk is a very dynamic company with excellent job opportunities for good people. The company's organization is stretching several European countries which is creating an interesting work environment. Many employees seem to stick around for many years which is a good sign.

Cons

The office rooms are large, open floor rooms. This means there is generally quite a lot of noise from phone calls and other conversations which is causing distraction.

Pros

Workforce aligned with business goals

Cons

no opportunities for career growth

Advice to Senior Management

consider that people want to change levels, or even departments

Pros

Amazing products and services, minimal number of deadbeats/mediocre people, great benefits, fantastic fiscal position that guarantees the company can survive large shocks - we see to get a lot of them now in 2011, possibilities to grow.

Cons

A bit more conservative than would be necessary, the "politically savy" people that seem to survive any downsizing in favor of more qualified but less politically astute individuals can be annoying - there are lots of people that have been more or less "grandfathered" in due to their long tenure(5, 10 or more years with the company) and some of them fall in the first category I described.
There is a sensible gap in quality of people between developed markets(US, Japan, West Europe) and emerging territories where politics may play a bigger role because the overall results from those territories are less important to the overall bottom line of the company and the managers are given a bit more leeway so be prepared in case you may have to deal with that part of the world.

Advice to Senior Management

For an organization that employs more than 6,000 people, it is impossible to eliminate all the mediocre people but I think there is space for doing better. Other than that, be a little more willing to take risks because they can pay off big time - the Ipad/Iphone platform was an awesome move.

Pros

Very low pressure compared with most tech jobs... a 10am till 3pm working environment
Autodesk has a dominant position in a few segments, particularly with AutoCAD in drafting
Salary and lifestyle are very good
Most offices have good working environments

Cons

Really average executive team ( a few bright sparks) who have been in positions without consequence of failure (all the poorly executed acquisitions and low growth in new segments)... incredibly self serving bunch who have lost the trust of most middle managers
There are some fantastic business units to work in, but it all gets lost in bland corporate strategy... just visit the web site to see how hard it is to understand what Autodesk's brand and direction are?
A lot of crony behavior. If you like to fluff your VP instead of the customer, this is the place for you!
Since Carol Bartz left, much of the buzz and drive has been absent... what was left departed when they fired the much loved EVP Sales last year
Internal staff satisfaction measurements are showing increasingly worse results every year

Advice to Senior Management

Stop , look, listen... and I don't mean get HR to do a survey
Customers view Autodesk as a cost of doing their business, not a business partner
Your channel are signing up with other vendors
Your staff have given up thinking and working the extra hours... they don't see the point
It feels like a sick company right now... but nobody dare say it

Pros

good benefits
work from home days

Cons

bad customer service
gossip all over the place
poor management

Advice to Senior Management

Retire!

Pros

Company is stable and products are great and respected.

Cons

Old fashioned thinking, not open or youthful in approach.

Pros

1. Work life balance is good.
2. Office location (Pudong office) is convenient.
3. People here in shanghai are nice.

Cons

1. Compensation is much lower than other well-known MNCs
2. Overall quality of the employees is not good. Especially after the acquisition happened on early 2008. Of cause, there are still many high capability guys but seems its very hard for this organization (ACRD) to keep them.
3. No innovation environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to pay more attention to people. More investment on people, more training, create more innovative environment, more opportunities for employees to be advanced.

Pros

- Flexiable working hrs
- O.K benefit

Cons

- lack of growth opportunity
- awful mid-level managers
- organization without changes and challenge