Adaptive Financial Consulting Reviews

Pros

Available and interested leadership Good work/life balance Interesting work and plenty of support Something that has really stood out for me during Covid, is how transparent the Adaptive leadership has been. Sure, they've let a few contractors go and have had a few tough times but they've always been upfront about everything going on. There seems to be a concerted effort to keep staff feeling united and informed; there's no smoke and mirrors, no pretence that the company has been unaffected and this has had a real impact on how I feel about working here. You really see the true colours of a company during the bad times, right? In that case, I'm definitely going to stick around because they've shown me that they lead well, are smart and give a damn about their team.

Cons

Some work definitely needs to be done on supporting the structure of the company as it scales but they are aware of that and HR and leadership are on the case.

Pros

Compared to some consultancies I have worked for Adaptive is better than some and weaker than others. The London office is in a great spot.... when we are able to work there, with the usual freebies that are at all technology firms these days such as food and drinks.

Cons

I would have chosen 2.5 for the score, as it's not a horrible experience... It is just this is the same old business model of consulting, with less real opportunity and growth compared to the top flight firms. Lots of the team members have historic relationships and this works if you are part of the group but does not work for new guys with differing opinions and experiences. These are tough times for the people reselling business and there is genuine concern whether the value proposition is still meaningful considering the strong likelihood of adjustment in the primary industry we serve - Finance. With all consultancies it's the same-old model of tough times arriving through the door, and the consultants exited out the window. We shall see what happens if banks continue to retract. All this aside, the general experience is just 'ok'. Being an engineer here is just like contracting, without the administrative tax head-ache. The things we build are commonly rudimentary, dull banking stuff (obviously) with the ground-hog-day technologies. In summary, this is a step up for some, it just does not compare to a real consultancy with established horizontal opportunities.

Pros

There are some decent technology people at Adaptive and there's a message of good intent to enable work-life balance, diversity and well-being.

Cons

Reading the other reviews on Glassdoor, it is interesting that the most realistic has the most "helpful" votes, whilst being the only negative review. Adaptive builds products one way, which cannot be challenged. Many team members who have worked for Adaptive for some time have a passive-aggressive and guarded nature, who rarely listen to opinions. Back-biting and snide are sadly more common that the marketing of autonomy and inclusivity suggest and these ultimately limit both the scope of the firms capability, and the happiness of anyone seeking a career at Adaptive. Essentially, it's a case of following the line, hero selection, and taking the side with the leadership's favourites. I can imagine the dream of the four guys, extending their friendship to a bigger group, sounded like a good idea at the time, but they seem to lack true understanding of what a company needs to scale, without such toxicity. I'm not alone in this belief and it's surprising there are not more negative reviews, to which I can only imagine are being deleted by the pro-active HR team. Adaptive feels painful at it's current size, and I can imagine this will become exponentially worse as it grows unless something is done.

Pros

I've worked at Adaptive for more than 3 years. During my time, I've been put on different projects and I have had the chance to grow and learn a lot. My colleagues were awesome. Not only was the technical level very high, but people were nice and happy to help (when not in a crunch, obviously). I've also been given a lot of autonomy on my projects. The directors were giving me the tools I needed to perform my job and were there if ever I needed help, but they were never micro-managing me. This allowed me to learn a lot and gave me a feeling of being in control of my project along with my colleagues. I have absolutely enjoyed my time at Adaptive and it is a great company to work at.

Cons

I see a few cons to Adaptive and I hope it gets better in the future. The first probably has to do with the nature of the work being done at Adaptive. It's a consultancy company. This means you have to be cut out for this kind of work. I feel the great deal of autonomy I experienced sometimes worked against me in some situations where I would have liked Adaptive to intervene, moments like when the client tries to impose a waterfall methodology or has other unreasonable requests. I also felt I was left on some projects for too long. This can be hard to balance, but after a project has clearly fallen into maintenance mode, I would have liked to be transferred on another project sooner. The projects I got to work on were not as interesting as I was promised when I was hired. I would not say Adaptive blatantly lied to me, but I was not given the chance to really work on a real-time system, which is the specialty of Adaptive. I worked on some projects where there were technical challenges of other kinds, and that was fine, but my last project was a real snooze fest.

Pros

- Direct communication with the directors and founders - Transparency - Great benefits - Amazing work environment - The HR team is reachable and supportive, it is amazing to have "human" people to talk to and share your concerns with. I'm gladly surprised how much they work to make sure no one feels excluded and how they always try to find a way to solve any problem you may have.

Cons

I can't think of anything now!

Pros

When working from their office: Good atmosphere, smart/friendly colleagues When working from a client's office: You'll still be part of an Adaptive team, as they never (?) shop out individuals.

Cons

When working at a client's office: Atmosphere depends entirely on the client; little engagement with the rest of the company, aside from summer/Christmas parties. Lack of clarity on available career opportunities.