Ancestry Employee Reviews about "great benefits"

Pros

The product is amazing. It's fun, productive, and changes live. Great health benefits. Flexible time-off. Flexible schedules. Cafe and gym onsite.

Cons

Explosive growth has attracted a leadership team more focused on money than the customer. Top level leadership is out of touch with employees and customer needs. Too much focus on what's new leaving the existing product experience lacking. Constant organizational changes. No definitive culture.

Pros

Great life work balance. It's 9-5pm unless you really want to work longer. You can work from home when needed, take time off when needed, as long as you get your work done. The pay is good. The company is generous in giving you all the tools you need to do your job well. The San Francisco office just got free snacks and sodas and drinks. There are pockets of good people to work with.

Cons

The culture-not so good. It has more politics and hierarchy than Washington! And if you didn't already guess, Ancestry.com has a very conservative culture. The San Francisco office is changing a bit though, with more new people joining. The employees are on the older side, with most being married with kids. (So don't expect fun company events and parties.) The San Francisco office is considered a 'satellite' office to the headquarters in Provo, Utah. So most of your team mates are out in Provo. Which makes communication difficult. There's a lot of teleconferencing and traveling back and forth that goes on. The benefits are not so great either. For the San Francisco office the health insurance used is Select Health, which is super hard to find providers for in California. It's also a very rough onboarding experience if you join the San Francisco office. You will not get much help from HR, since they are in Provo, nor will anyone around try to help you out. Not because people are unfriendly, but because there are so many travelers in and out that its' hard to tell who is new and who is just visiting from another office. If you are one of the unlucky ones to be the only one on your team in the SF office while the rest is in Provo, you will have a really tough time integrating.

Pros

Lots of great people are there. They have great benefits that help you feel well taken care of. They are also in a great location.

Cons

Very splintered development organization. A lack of standards really hurts the effectiveness of individuals, teams, and departments.

Pros

Great work-life balance More innovation in product Talented Team Great Employee Benefits

Cons

Hiring process should be little faster.

Pros

• Understand work-life balance • Great benefits / bonus / 401-k match • Stablility • Allows time for exploring solutions, never rushed to make bad decisions

Cons

• Too many titles Assoc. Director / Director / Senior Directors, etc. • A little too many meetings, and project planning apps differ from team to team • Can get political • Career planning is not fully supported

Pros

Ancestry.com develops products that actually mean something in peoples' lives. Benefits have always been great. Salaries have been at or above competitive rates as far as I have seen. Time off policy has always been generous. Most of my coworkers have been talented, smart, and nice to work with. The technologies we use are interesting and provide ample professional development experience. Great company mission. Great work/life balance is possible with flexible hours and occasional remote work possible. Building Ancestry's products is fun because they are challenging and interesting to build, and contribute something meaningful to the world--not just building widgets at yet another widget factory. It also helps that Ancestry has experienced healthy growth for as long as I've been here--through the recession and all. This is a thriving company with a solid business model. Current top management seems to make great decisions.

Cons

From an engineering perspective: Ancestry supports a large suite of products and changes are slow. We sometimes lag behind in implementing newer technologies because most development involves enhancing existing properties, not building brand new ones. This type of work involves overcoming some inertia, which makes change slower than at many smaller/startup companies.

Pros

Lots of knowledgable people and great benefits! I feel valuable. I feel like people respect me and use my knowledge to benefit them and likewise I can lean on other people to glean off of their knowledge. For the first time in a long while I actually feel like I get to learn more everyday and help others learn at the same time!

Cons

No complaints from me so far.

Pros

Great benefits package and onsite perks. Most of the employees are delightful.

Cons

The company always says "Degree's aren't a requirement that we follow to closely. Sure they help, but we will always hire the person best for the job" FALSE! I'm walking proof this is not true. I've applied for several positions, some of the positions I've literally been helping do the job, and have been passed up. The reason? Only one I've ever been given is "because you dont have a degree" The company recently laid off employees in February. Told everyone their jobs were safe. Margo joins the company, helps reassure everyone that their jobs are safe. 2 months later, in late July, they announce they're outsourcing the Tech Support call center and lay off several people. People complained in the employee survey, and somehow management was shocked by this. They said "we're going to implement changes" and yet things continue to spiral down. As of writing this, the company is actively losing more people than they can hire. Not just any people either, people who have put 10-15+ years into this company. There is ZERO work/life balance. People here are unofficially expected to put in horrendous amount of hours, give up tons of personal time, and give priority in life to the company. I've literally watched people cancel anniversary dates because they couldn't get away from work.

Pros

The people at Ancestry strive to empower each other, which creates a fun and effective environment. You get help and don't need to feel ashamed to ask questions. The WLB is great too. As the company focuses on helping individuals and families, employees have the flexibility to care for their loved ones in time of need while being flexible with work. The benefits are great. Also, the company is very diverse, which allows for different perspectives and a lot of creativity.

Cons

Not many downsides at all.

Pros

I really enjoy the managers I report to. They are kind, flexible, and make you feel valuable. Ancestry also has great benefits- cash incentives to encourage healthy habits, free food, and good health and dental benefits.

Cons

Some departments encourage interaction with coworkers while other departments discourage it. A bit more consistency across the board would be helpful.