Edmunds.com Reviews

Pros

- Good benefits
- Great office
- Good office atmosphere

Cons

- Lack of management skills
- low level of engineering skills

Advice to Senior Management

Look around more carefully to see better people to promote

Pros

Benefits are very generous, compensation is top notch, environment is amazing, management is very supportive, flexible schedule, numerous company holidays

Cons

No room for advancement in my department. No room for advancement in my department. No room for advancement in my department.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize everyone in company not the same people. Recognize everyone in company not the same people. Recognize everyone in company not the same people.

Pros

A lot of opportunities for working with new technologies.

Cons

Lots of late nights and weekends lost after the deadlines.

Advice to Senior Management

Edmunds is a great company. Keep up with inovations.

Pros

Fantastic benefits, borderline union/government level of vacation and flexibility. Not to bait union bashers, I feel this is a good thing: Rare in the private sector. I truly think this policy pays dividends in retention and productivity.

There are a lot of fantastic contributors here. It's a pleasure to work with you.

The firm genuinely cares about growing talent to higher responsibility, and spends an appropriate amount on training and development. Its up to department managers to nominate stars however this yields mixed results: Some departments haven't figured this out. This is localized phenomena, not a systemic problem. You just have to report through the right channel. More luck than anything.

All the cons below should be taken with a grain of salt: One should not mistake for malice what might be more easily explained by incompetence/lack of experience. Edmunds is a young company in transition.

Cons

I've been here long enough to notice the common threads of complaint that can be summarized below. These are not character assassination, just a summary of the things heard 'round the water cooler. Fair or not, this is the sentiment.

Not so much a con but there is a truism at Edmunds: It's what you make of it. Each of these reviews pretty much nailed it. The ones that are dissatisfied are marginalized because they don't fit in, the ones who love it are 'gelling' with the execs and are having the (well compensated) time of their lives.

So which type are you?
How do people get marginalized at Edmunds? It seems persons who speak up and call others out on problems are quickly shunned. They don't last long. I don't know if its a function of their personality or if there is a prison-like gladiator rule, but when outsiders come in they either "fit" or they don't. Some get the white collar version of "the shiv" in the courtyard when they least expect it. Watch your back at Edmunds.

People who are pleasant, refrain from making waves or other problems can stay almost as long as they like--correction--as long as the execs like. You see, longevity here is a hallmark of being 'liked.' Take it or leave it, this appears to be the common thread among the line execs.

One "con" that is of concern to those who are not as gregarious: The whole yammer thing. Yammer is an appropriately named Twitter-like tool that encourages people to, well, yammer about anything they are thinking about. Cacophony of meaningless noise. When comparing the volume of Yammer posts and the rank of the -ahem- contributor, you get a really good correlation. Think about that. The only way we've tried to reconcile the Yammer-performance connection is to imagine the execs have outsourced strategy to the line execs. These line execs uh, yammer about blogs they read and provide no insight other than the message between the lines which is "I spend a lot of time reading blogs posted by people who are reporting on other persons or firms that have done [this] or [that]." Fascinting stuff.

Question for you yammerers: What have you done today? this week?

Advice to Senior Management

Become strategic.
You have a surplus of people who read blogs for a living.

Pros

I've been at Edmunds.com for nearly seven years. The company has doubled in size and revenue since I started. There have been some growing pains, but one thing that has never wavered is the company's commitment to employee satisfaction and work/life balance. The benefits are top notch and senior management is accessible and responsive. My career has flourished at Edmunds and I am grateful for the opportunities the company has given me to continue my education and develop my skills. The talent pool here is amazing.

Cons

Santa Monica is a beautiful location, but unless you live on the Westside, you are going to face a terrible commute.

Advice to Senior Management

I think a more transparent salary structure would help to boost morale. Additionally, company-wide announcements about job changes and promotions would help us keep up with other departments better.

Pros

1. Incredible respect for the employees. I've never seen an HR team work harder to take care of the people who work here. Amazing vacation policy, great work-life balance, fantastic benefits, super family-friendly environment, ongoing training, what else can I say? And an HR department who are approachable, earnest and here to support us.
2. Innovative culture. Have a new idea? It's welcome here, and if it's a good idea 20 people will offer to help you make it happen. From Product ideas to Process methodologies to new ways of getting feedback to employees, the management encourages and supports innovation from the troops (not just from the top).
3. Incredibly high work standards. Some people on here clearly see this as a negative, and Edmunds is demanding. But it also means that we create products you can be proud of, and that under-performers are pushed out of the company (to the relief of the rest of us).
4. Family-friendly company. This is a company where you can have a passionate, exciting career and have time & energy for your family as well. No one frowns at you for taking a family vacation, making time to attend a child's play, or heading out early for a date with your spouse.
5. Passionate, smart & compassionate management team. The C-level execs who head up Edmunds are the best I've ever worked with (and no, I'm not one of them). They're smart, well educated and will challenge you to do your best. They are focused on creating the best possible experience for our customers, even at the expense of the dealers/OEMs who pay our advertising. And they are deeply concerned about the satisfaction and advancement of their employees.

Cons

Some major changes have taken place in the last 6 months, which have made this a much much better place to work. In the past we had these problems:
1. Bitter, disenfranchised employees who think they're entitled to promotions simply because of how many years they've been here. Thankfully many of these have left, although we still have a few hanging around. I hope we can get the rest of them out before they can do harm to the happy people. Many of them seem to be posting reviews here, unfortunately.
2. A long release process. Again, this has changed and we've gone from a multi-month (or even year) release cycle to a quick & efficient <monthly iteration.
3. A cumbersome, slow infrastructure that prevented real innovation. Again, happily, we've fixed this problem which is allowing us to move quickly and actually see our ideas go live in a matter of weeks.

Advice to Senior Management

I love the new Design Thinking approach! Keep empowering us and giving us a chance to come up with the new ideas & direction for the company - whether product ideas, HR policies, or cultural changes.

Pros

Fantastic office space, fresh fruit each morning and a generous time off policy. Compensation is competitive for in-demand skills and experience.

You're working with some of the best people in town both personally and professionally.

The company promotes from within, which in theory has great potential, but in practice...well, see the Cons.

Cons

Top heavy: Operational inefficiency
Inexperienced executives: Poor leadership, whim-of-iron management style
Silos: Zero inter department communication, wasteful duplication of effort
Lack of accountability: Excessive politics, fairytale-like simulation of a business.

There are two types of executives in my book: Those who execute, and professional politicians. Edmunds still has a few of the former around but lately the emphasis has been on the latter.

This observation matters because Edmunds is at a turning point: All of the easy money has been made. The new site was designed with the curious objective of revenue parity. Worse, the released product did not accomplish this goal. Now the goal is to go direct to dealers. So given this landscape, who is going to lead the company to its full potential? The politicians?

Whom is accountable?
What's going on, anyway? When we gather expectantly to hear about the performance of the redesigned site, the message we get is that page views are up. Be straight with us. You hired adults, we can take it. Hell, we'll even do another death march on your behalf if you tell us who is accountable for results so that we can help them achieve our shared objective.

Whom is accountable - part II
To my observation, the primary activity of the VPs is self preservation. Information that bubbles up the chain of command is ignored, particularly if the easier option is to kick the can down the road and avoid any conversations that involve conflict or a tough decision.

Whom is accountable - part III
There are several initiatives in progress that take up valuable time, bypass business justification and seem to be resume-enhancers for those who champion them. Some fundamental questions: Who is asking for these projects? To what end do they serve the customers? How much does this cost to deliver? How much will this cost to sustain? And finally the question that never seems to be asked or answered, "What is the business value?"

Advice to Senior Management

Scrutinize your executives and challenge them on the value they provide; hold them accountable to measurable goals that are meaningful to the continued health and prosperity of the business. Trim substantially once you discover what the rest of us experience while toiling long hours on your behalf.

Hey, its your money. If the hockey stick doesn't materialize, you can always go after the free money from the operating margins commensurate with experienced management and a dismantling of the technology playground.

Pros

Edmunds is a great place to be exposed to a number of new technologies. The benefits package is fantastic. Great office environment.

Cons

Insane work-life balance. Get used to late nights, weekends, and not being able to use your vacation time or cash in your "stock options".

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to all the Directors, Managers and Seniors who have quit this year. People are leaving to less pay and some to no job at all because they are exhausted, burned out and feeling abused. Many have told you why, but are you listening?

Pros

Edmunds has talented employees who work in a challenging and team-centric environment. Senior management genuinely cares about the people who work at Edmunds. A good work-life balance is provided, especially when compared to the industry standard. Great benefits.

Cons

For a time, Edmunds carried dead weight and some bad apples, but the situation improved with some targetted house cleaning.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay focused on the challenges and refrain from spreading teams thin.

Pros

Some opportunities to learn new stuff. Time off policy. Espresso machine.

Cons

Incompetent management, no recognition, political battlefield. Company culture changed completely over the last years. Obnoxious tech architecture, pushed by unqualified management and implemented by quite intelligent engineers.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the company more agile. Revise your IT budget and headcount: you can save loads of $$$ by cutting you 40+ software engineering personnel in half. You are running what? 3 websites?