Interviewing at Adobe
I am currently an M2 (not technically a Sr EM) with 2 small teams reporting to me @ AI/ML, Cupertino. Path to M3 (Sr EM) is not super clear. Adobe recruiter reached out to interview for a Director role at CTO office (Firefly). I think I am really a good fit tech wise (AI, Data and etc) but I was told I would have two teams potentially reporting to me. Each team has ~10 people + Sr EM. I made it clear I do not have experience managing Sr EMs but they told me they mostly care about my tech experience for this role. My WLB at Apple is so-so but manageable. Would be curious to know how is Adobe for Sr EM/Dir roles. Are their titles inflated? How's WFH policy? And finally what are the salary expectations? Any former Apple employees who work at Adobe or Adobe employees who work at Apple? How would you compare these two companies? YOE: 12+ TC: ~700k (refreshers are good!) #adobe
If you never worked at Adobe it’s hard for you to imagine how terrible it is. The toxicity here is on a whole new level no other companies can match.
I don’t know anyone from Adobe so I have no idea. Is it political? PIP culture?
Horrible wlb aside, what is worse is there is absolutely zero respect. You will be treated as an emotionless slave. Also compared to apple, Adobe employee’s technical competency is like 2 level below.
Worst culture at Firefly .. we are just waiting to move out when market is better.
Thanks! Could you say more?
Just some words of advice, from what I see daily in the internal Blind - Adobe India is not the place to be, the WLB is bad and managers are difficult to work with, these posts are a dime a dozen. I haven’t really seen too many complains from other offices. I have seen some comments about bad WLB on Firefly, but this might depend on the role, manager and so on. If I were you, I would give the interview a shot and evaluate the offer. Not having experience leading teams is not an issue, if you’re not anxious and challenged when starting a new job then why are you even switching
Hmm. So many reports of Toxicity, WLB issues, silent layoffs from the US offices were seen in the Adobe channel.
I would recommend the transition. Adobe at Director or above level is very much rewarding monetarily. WLB is bad but mostly it’s for ICs. management is not that smart technically. It’s people like you who change middle management culture. Adobe has good business sense and need a better technical sense. Yes it’s political but not any more than other big tech. People those who complain WLB should go to amazona and work for a month. I moved from bigtech (IC developer) 2 years earlier and I would do the switch again given all the information.
Thank you for the comment and insight.
@AHYI86 - So happy for you. Looks like you are in a rare lucky team. It is actually horrible in my team. I had switched from Amazon to Adobe expecting better wlb and non toxic culture. But in my team it is worse than Amazon. Share details of your team as I am desperate to switch to a healthy team.
I joined Adobe from FAANG a few years ago. The culture in some Adobe orgs has deteriorated and has become worse than Amazon's work culture. Of course it is a large company and there are a lot of microclimates (good teams within toxic orgs and toxic teams within good orgs). Check well about the org and team before joining to avoid toxic surprises.
OP Did you join and what is your experience?
I heard through friends that Firefly WLB was bad. Not sure how accurate though.
I am curious why. They said they have only internal customers which are researchers.
It's true, people on internal Blind chat complain about horrible WLB at Firefly. And now they mandade 3 days work from office.