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Autodesk
3.4 of 5 301 reviews
www.autodesk.com San Rafael, CA 5000+ Employees

Autodesk Reviews

Updated Jun 14, 2013
All Employees Current Employees Only

3.4 300 reviews

                             

69% Approve of the CEO

Autodesk President, CEO, and Director Carl Bass

Carl Bass

(179 ratings)

71% of employees recommend this company to a friend
300 Employee Reviews
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1 person found this helpful  

Great company--a healthy balance of fun, challenge, and inspiration.

Program Manager (Current Employee)

I have been working at Autodesk full-time for more than 3 years

ProsAutodesk makes great products, and it's amazing to see how these products are used by their customers. The company culture is fun and provides an atmosphere for creativity in problem-solving, and there are many opportunities to challenge yourself and learn.

ConsThere is little opportunity for advancement.

Advice to Senior ManagementKeep up the great work in encouraging personal leadership and creating a great company culture.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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Frustrating at times

Senior Business Manager (Current Employee)
Waltham, MA

I have been working at Autodesk full-time for more than 8 years

ProsPassionate people, good products and positioning in marketplace.

Company's focus on cloud/mobile is exciting for the long term but the pendulum has swung too much towards it and current products are being neglected.

Stock program is quite good and can make some extra $ from it.

ConsEndless reorgs. People are moved around without regard for their skill set.

Warning: If you accept a job (other than engineering) be warned that it your job won't be what you are doing 12 months later.

Very very west coast centric. If you aren't in the SF office - you wont have much opportunity to grow.

Too much reliance on "data". The amount of time put together creating dashboards, goal posts etc. is insane. Heavy overlap between different teams doing similar functions.

Advice to Senior ManagementSenior management needs to get out of the west coast and mingle with the other teams.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Such a waste of talent and potential - heartbreaking

Anonymous Employee (Former Employee)
San Francisco, CA

I worked at Autodesk full-time

ProsAmazing people
Great Work/Life balance
Great products
Solid positioning in the design field

ConsTotally inefficient organization - Senior management seriously lacks experience and ambition, work for own interest only
Political game present everywhere - a lot of promises and projects are started, but nothing ever gets done !
No opportunity for advancement through hard work - you have to be "a friend of"

Advice to Senior ManagementA big cleanup is absolutely required - but this time don't just reorg by shuffling senior managers around - Get rid of those who haven't proven their worth through results and hard work, promote hard workers and people with ambition.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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Recommend: family-friendly, career-friendly, and not crazy

Project Manager (Former Employee)
San Rafael, CA

I worked at Autodesk as a contractor

ProsAutodesk seems to really care about their people - both on a personal and professional level, and exercise high standards of quality. Although I was only there as a contractor, I had a lot of visibility into the career management of the employees on my team. They definitely had ongoing opportunity to advance and learn things. Also, there is a fairly flexible work schedule. People got vacation and time off when they needed it. More importantly, the general company culture is humane and non-crazy. As a contractor, I get to see inside a lot of enterprises, and Autodesk's culture is one of the best.

ConsIn my conversations with other contractors, the most common negative that I've heard about Autodesk is "they don't have any money nowadays". The perception is that Autodesk profits by acquiring smaller companies (whose solutions often don't scale) rather than through their own innovation. This does not bode well for their long term prospects.

Advice to Senior ManagementYou are a technology company and you've lost your edge. You need to either decide to coast on your size or recreate a culture of innovation starting today.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Great company and culture

Program Manager (Current Employee)
Manchester, NH

I have been working at Autodesk full-time for more than 3 years

ProsEveryone is excited to be working at Autodesk

ConsAlthough they claim to be a global company it's very West Coast centric

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Autodesk - Great Job Satisfaction

Senior Principal So (Current Employee)

I have been working at Autodesk full-time

ProsWhat you work on directly impacts millions of customers. Software created at Autodesk is used by Engineers, Architects, Construction etc. Almost every you buy might have been designed or created using one of the Autodesk softwares. Great job satisfaction

ConsPay is not competitive with respect to the industry, though the benefits are great.

Advice to Senior ManagementGreat company! To retain good people, pay them well.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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2 people found this helpful  

Smart people navigating internal politics

Anonymous Employee (Current Employee)

I have been working at Autodesk full-time

ProsExtremely intelligent, talented employees that are helpful to each other and work hard. Decent life/work balance (unless your team is geographically dispersed), nice office environment, flex time.

ConsExtremely political. Vindictive and petty game-playing at the middle-management level. No room for advancement unless you participate in aforementioned game-playing. Constant company re-organizations. Lack of transparency about high-level decisions.

Advice to Senior ManagementStop interfering, monitoring, and micro-managing, and let the people just do their work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Too much management and old timers

Anonymous Employee (Current Employee)

I have been working at Autodesk full-time

ProsFlexibility, work environment and location

ConsLot of people who have been in the company for over 10 years. There is a lot of senior saturation in the company with very few juniors. Very few people in the company understand cloud computing which is where the companies main future focus is.

Advice to Senior ManagementGet rid of the old and get some new people in.

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Incredible company with unparalleled benefits, if you can keep up with its dynamic nature.

Territory Sales Manager (Current Employee)

I have been working at Autodesk full-time for more than 10 years

ProsGreat people, love the benefits (including a 6 week sabbatical after 4 years), diverse solution portfolio which allows for many options to move within the company. Excellent technology, often best of breed in the industry.

ConsVery political in nature, seemingly endless reorgs, and sometimes product development seems to take much longer than usual. Very siloed as a company which can be a challenge to get things done. Names change so much, with acronyms, there is an "Autodesk dictionary" to keep track.

Advice to Senior ManagementWould like to see a much clearer employee development program, as well as a more fanatical approach to customer satisfaction.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Great place to work

Software QA Analyst (Current Employee)
Waltham, MA

I have been working at Autodesk as a contractor for less than a year

ProsThey have a very flexible schedule, with ability to work remotely, required vacation time, a fair bit of contact with upper management, and they are constantly acquiring great and exciting companies!

ConsNot many young people- they could do more university grads but great flexibility in the working environment and happy employees!

Advice to Senior ManagementAs with any big company, the upper management could always be more transparent and the process could be less bureaucratic, but I think they are working to be more clear.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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