Intuit is a good place to work, but don't expect any rapid opportunities for advancement
Pros
One of the best things going for Intuit is its use of management frameworks; I notice this especially now that I've moved on to another employer. I don't know if Brad Smith does this, but Steve Bennett would regularly pass down frameworks (e.g. performance management frameworks or concepts like "learn teach learn") that would quickly get propagated throughout the organization. Occasionally while I was there, I'd think, doesn't this guy have anything else to do? But now that I'm elsewhere, I long for the days of organized, structured management; and I use frameworks that I garnered from Intuit at my new job. Thanks, Steve. The organization is also great at providing tools to reward and recognize employees when they do a great job: spotlight awards, which are cash or gifts that can be distributed at the discretion of individual employees or managers; each team had a specific rewards and recognition budget, etc. Note: this is different from promotions, but in terms of acknowledging good work, the organization was excellent at it. I especially loved that individual contributors could use their discretion to reward good work. I never saw this abused while I was there either; employees took the responsibility seriously. I never had work/life balance issues when I was there either. It was easy for me to leave at 5 or 5:30 pm, I could leave early or work from home if necessary, etc. The company treats you like an adult in that respect. In a similar vein, the benefits package is terrific, very generous. Finally, great training opportunities if you were a high performer. The Fast Path program is world-class.
Cons
One of the biggest issues is that it's very hard to progress up the ranks there, especially once you get to a manager level (e.g. sr. manager, group manager). I finally left because of that. Making a jump to Director + levels moves at a glacial pace (even though there was a huge initiative to promote from within when I was there). Intuit prides itself on being particular about people, but I think it ends up doing itself a disservice because great people want to move up through the ranks; if there is no where to go (or no role model of others being promoted), it gets to be discouraging quickly; no one wants to be a Group Manager for 5+ years. While Intuit has an excellent performance management framework -- the best I've seen in Silicon Valley -- ratings and management are inconsistent across the organization. For instance, some teams would be great at weeding out the dead wood; in others, they'd hide out next to the copy machine for years. The company is packed with lifers, which can sometimes be the sign of a good place to work and sometimes the sign of lazy management. For Intuit it's a little of both. I had to fire 2 people in the first 6 months I was there, mostly because they just got passed around by lazy managers. The business itself is at an inflection point. It's really riding on Tax at this point; that is a legitimate, healthy web business. But every other part of the organization is struggling with how to incorporate the web and stop being a moribund software giant. And that's a tough challenge. Intuit can't skate by on Tax forever; there are lots of other competitors (called "ankle biters," which I loved) that do as good or better and are significantly cheaper. Quicken in particular is on total life support. Brad Smith really has to find some new, compelling business models.
