-9
eNPS Score
Q&A With Ancestry Employees
At Ancestry, we empower each other to develop and thrive in a supportive environment by engaging employees of all backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We want our employees to reach their full potential while discovering a greater sense of identity, relatedness, and their place in the world.
How employees describe working at Ancestry
Tools work, could be better, overall satisfied
Follow up with upset customers
Reliability and transparency. The system frequently exhibits partial failures where some of the functionality doesn't work. The company doesnt communicate about technical issues, root causes, remediation and plans.
Great, awesome place to work
It's a good place to research genealogy.
What it's like to work at Ancestry
- Ancestry employees generally work 8.7 hrs a day
- Employees at Ancestry report the work pace is moderate
- On a typical day, employees at Ancestry have 1 meeting
- 81% of Ancestry employees look forward to interacting with their team every day
- Ancestry employees most often take unlimited paid vacation and sick days each year
- 100% of Ancestry employees report they are happy with their work life balance
- Ancestry employees typically get valuable feedback on how to improve at work Once a month
- 67% of Ancestry employees call their work environment positive
Q&A With Ancestry Employees
IDX: 0 TOT: 34
How's the vacation policy at Ancestry?
It's unlimited. Never had any issues taking advantage of the policy either
It's NOT, NOT, NOT unlimited! It's "flexible".
Unlimited! Be respectful of your team & your work. Get done what you need and there are no issues with you taking the time off you need.
How many women are in your team? is it diverse enough?
Top Employee Response
There is one out of 12 developers. I would like it to be more diverse.
Gender diversity in Product & UX is good. It would always be better. Racial/Ethic diversity is low.
We have very few female directors, executives, and VPs. I don't believe there is much opportunity for female employees beyond management positions.
How secure do you feel at your job at Ancestry?
Top Employee Response
Insecure. Layoffs here hit even the best performers due to executive ineptitude
Not secure. Many layoffs in the past.
As secure as you can feel at any job in the tech industry
How's the work life balance at Ancestry?
Depends on the team. Most teams though are very happy to get you taken care of in all aspects of life so you can perform better while you are at work.
Similar to other tech companies.
So far it is pretty good. That could change with the new management team
How much diversity is there among employees at Ancestry?
Some
Pretty good and they are always working on making it more diverse
How's the morale at Ancestry?
Top Employee Response
It depends on the team, but some teams have low morale due to layoffs.
Pretty good. There have been lots of management changes over the last year, and everyone is just trying to get through them.
What's one thing you wish you'd known before joining Ancestry?
No notice needs to be given before laying people off.
Nothing, it is a great place to work and has consistently gotten better.
What unique perks and benefits does Ancestry provide?
No
In house gym and cafeteria. Lots of free food and drinks.
What's the office layout like at Ancestry?
"Pods, pods as far as the eye can see". I guess "open" is the official description
Partial open office
What's the office vibe like at Ancestry?
Top Employee Response
Right now, it’s very low. The culture change that has happened in the past 9 months have deeply impacted the company.
Stressful and anxious with all the recent management changes.
How do the current devs on the team act towards new developers that join?
Top Employee Response
We welcome them as long as they can contribute and are willing to learn
In my experience, peers on existing teams are actually quite excited to get new new devs "up to speed" on our technology stack, etc. Things rarely change at Ancestry (aside from frequent desk changes), so the vast majority of devs enjoy getting a new hire on their team - it is refreshing to get a new personality.
How are layoffs handled in the Engineering department at Ancestry?
Top Employee Response
Poorly. There used to be a guy named Mark LeMonnier that was a VP of engineering at Ancestry that really fought for his people when these times came. Made the engineers feel very valued. He was recently removed from the company, and with him, the company lost all of its' integrity regarding these events. Many of the best engineers in the company have been removed through executive incompetence, and Nat in particular loves showing the board he can "do what's necessary" to cut costs. To put it simply, they don't handle it well, and it probably won't be handled well until leadership changes happen.
How hard is it to get promoted at Ancestry?
It can be very difficult, especially in the past few years. Lots of documentation on why you should be promoted, plus approvals up the management chain.
How flexible is your work schedule at Ancestry?
The schedule for the engineering teams I have been on are very flexible. I can't speak for teams in other areas of the org.
How do I do well in an interview at Ancestry?
Prepare
How long do the interviews usually take at Ancestry?
2 phone screens and onsite interview for 5-6 hours.
What was the most difficult question that was asked during your interview at Ancestry?
A machine learning question.
What should I wear for an interview at Ancestry?
Business casual is fine.
Who did you meet with during your interview? And how long did it take to hear back from Ancestry?
A few weeks
What questions do they ask during the interview process at Ancestry?
Coding and technical questions on statistics and machine learning.
How would you compare interviewing at Ancestry to other places you've interviewed?
Medium difficulty.
How's the leadership on the Engineering team at Ancestry?
Very confused and disjointed. I hope they figure things out soon.
How challenged are you at Ancestry?
I am challenged by my work every day. There are always opportunities to stretch and improve your skills. I work with very smart and talented individuals which pushes me to keep my skills sharp and current.
How's the work pace at Ancestry?
It is speeding up
What are you most excited about working at Ancestry?
Top Employee Response
Building something that is meaningful for common consumers - simple Jacks and Jills. We don't create features for executives, we create them for passionate people who have regular lives.
Curious about what work's like at Ancestry?
Anonymously Ask Ancestry Employees Any Question
Should I work at Ancestry?
35% of Ancestry employees would encourage their friends to become coworkers, whereas 21% are neutral and 44% would not recommend working at Ancestry to their friends.
| 35% | Promoters |
|---|---|
| 21% | Passive |
| 44% | Detractors |
