Autodesk Reviews

Pros

Strong company, good salary/commission structure & benefits, they are strong on continuing education training/seminars for their sales people.

Cons

Sometimes management would "make it hard to take a customer's money" because there were so many rules and regulations to follow in order to complete the sale.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the salespeople do their job and trust them to know their customers.

Pros

.Very interesting and relevant technology.
.People you work with directly are smart, dedicated and competent.
.Good benefits. Flexible about working from home.
.Sabbaticals in US every four years.
.Opportunities for travel.

Cons

.If you work on revenue-generating products, you work very long hours, nights and weekends. Very little work/life balance. Those who don't work on products appear to have a good work/life balance.
.Acquisitions are not well integrated.
.If you don't work at headquarters, communication is spotty.
.Every January before the start of the fiscal year in February there are layoffs, also in April/May after products have been released.
.The company can be too AutoCAD centric, considering the diverse set of products it releases and all the acquisitions it has made.
.Vision and strategy seem to be lacking.
.Ineffective HR Dept.
.There's a forced ranking system to match a bell curve, whereby 10% of employees every year are told they didn't do their jobs, regardless of whether they met their objectives or had a good mid-year review.

Advice to Senior Management

.GE has abandoned the forced ranking system, so should Autodesk. Because various employees have the same job title, that doesn't mean they do the same job. In a software development environment where you have a mix of mature, new products and/or newly-acquired products you're comparing apples and oranges.
.Move away from the short-term quarter to quarter thinking.
.Invest more in technology to help stem the tide of massive offshoring and outsourcing.
.Since you pay thousands of dollars for the employee survey every year, act on its results.

Pros

One of the best places to work - if you are interested in 3D software tools, special effects, and design of all types. The creativity of Autodesk customers and the workflows Autodesk tools support is truly awe-inspiring in some cases. Compensation is competitive.

Cons

The company is not growing rapidly and so opportunities to advance internally are limited. Personnel decisions can seem arbitrary and subject to favoritism in the mid-manager to director slots, though exec-level and entry-level/single contributor roles seem to be managed reasonably well.

Pros

Very knowledgeable people, knowledge sharing. Good place to work. Can bring pets to work. Flexible hours. Sabbatical every four years - awesome! Nice area - San Rafael

Cons

Pay can be better. Not very streamlined processes - but improving. Can bring in more financial support for training purposes

Advice to Senior Management

Good job in communicating goals to employees. Good policies and good work-life balance allowed.

Pros

* Management is supportive but not as liberal as they make it to be...
* Helpful coworkers
* Good paymaster
* 2010 & 2011 has been good for Autodesk with acquisitions and leveraging the "cloud"

Cons

* The Singapore office isn't as liberal to say working from home
* The folks in the Singapore office are not skilled in leveraging open source technologies, adopting that mindset is hard
* Folks lack modern software engineering practices but they do try to adopt though change is slow coming
* Folks lack PASSSION - it's just a day job to them.
* Most of the interesting work is carried out in the US - i question the value of the satelite offices...

Advice to Senior Management

* Modernizing the work force is important - focus on that. Remove those that don't deliver
* Modernizing the product & making it relevant is important too - focus on that

Pros

The management is very good at supporting good work/life balance. They are quite good at paying above average. Good benefits and ESPP program.

Cons

Leadership lacks vision especially in AEC division. AEC division is racked by politics stemming from Revit acquisition years ago. Have to walk on eggshells and technical decisions are not respected because of political considerations. There are also severe lack of career growth options. You get stuck in a role and don't have a choice in moving around. Morale is quite low in AEC and talented people are leaving.

Innovation is not encouraged and individuals who take the initiative are often told that it's not their job to go outside of their described responsibilities.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership should be more approachable. AEC leadership is especially poor and talented people are leaving. I hope things change soon but not very optimistic. Innovation should be encouraged.

Pros

Work life balance and adapting to a changing business environment

Cons

at times it takes longer to implement change

Pros

- Good work-life balance, work starts at 8:30 but people usually turns up at 9:00 or even 9:30
- Similiar can be said to the leaving hours. No OT are usually needed.
- Good and friendly colleagues, not bureaucratic at all, no sucking up to boss etc.

Cons

- Quite slack culture, may not suite some people, especially for fresh graduates who are looking to learn about working life;.
- Starting salary is high, but increment is quite low.

Advice to Senior Management

Managemenet should offer more challenge or incentives to employee. So far I'm not seeing much chances for promotion.. Too many seniors

Pros

Excellent work life balance. They allow working from home, and allow a casual work environment. It's very much a "40 hour week" type of job. Good people , there are many "lifers" at Autodesk. Sabbatical (6 weeks straight off) every 4 years is a great perk. 12 days of PTO otherwise is not. Week of rest (between christmas and new years) is great.

Cons

You have to play the politics game well. There is a lot of red tape. Like any large organization, there are certainly inequities of promotions and favoritism. For a software company, it is a very "slow" organization. Change will not occur quickly, or even slowly.

Pros

-Great Products, Great workforce, excellent people

Cons

-in effective regional leadership
-no response to feedback taken from employees

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your ears to the ground and hear the dissatisfaction