- Management is focused purely upward, and generally has unchecked power/influence relative to other companies.
- There is no people management of engineering teams. This isn't a skill needed to manage "up".
- Adobe tolerates extremely productive, but toxic employees that probably would not survive long in other better managed environments. The term "brilliant jerks" used in other reviews is spot on. This is not the norm for the industry.
- 3 month ship cycles means you are constantly churning out features (defined elsewhere) and (generally) not innovating.
- Very much a design and PM driven company. Engineers have almost no say in product decisions, in fact, they are generally locked out/disempowered. You begin to feel like you are there just to crank out code like a robot. That can be liberating.
- Adobe behaves like two separate companies (cloud vs creative). These days it seems like Adobe really wants to become Salesforce.com more than anything else. It is quite schizophrenic.
- Outsourcing to India has become epidemic, and is indicative of how engineers are generally (de)valued within the org.
- RSUs, for engineers at least, generally don't get "re-upped". Negotiate well !
- Cash bonus isn't life-changing and seems unusually cheap given how well the company has been doing.
- Different divisions have extreme cultural differences. Some groups are sweatshops, others closer to cruise ships. Do your research.
- Adobe constantly loves to boast about its great work culture, but it doesn't come anywhere close to the hype. In fact, there are pockets of disfunction that are extreme.
- Adobe research is generally where much of the innovation has been outsourced to. Product teams are on such a short leash that product engineering doesn't get the time (generally) to be creative. It is a kind of intellectual caste system.
