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      Appian

      Engaged Employer

      Appian reviews

      3.6

      59% would recommend to a friend

      (787 total reviews)
      avatar

      Matt Calkins

      51% approve of CEO

      48% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.7

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.6

      Compensation and benefits

      3.5

      Culture & values

      3.4

      Career opportunities

      2.9

      Senior management

      Appian has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 787 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Appian employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      787 reviews
      1.0
      Aug 18, 2016

      Cult Culture Combustion

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      - Good people - Great potential

      Cons

      - Fosters a cult-like environment by hiring young kids straight out of college who are in need of a job, lying to them about company prospects, and their potential to "enact" change. - Not a meritocracy. The best idea doesn't win. The loudest voice in the room does. - If you're a woman, definitely stay away. This company touts a "Women's Leadership Program", but it's just for marketing. Many of women in leadership positions are demoted to "housekeeping" roles and ignored when they raise potential issues. In fact, Appian has systematically fired high-performing women or driven them away to greener pastures. - No longer cares about the people at the company or their clients. Business values shift each quarter and company is driven by potential profits and ROI. - Severe salary compression issues. Management entices young college graduates at a higher rate (100,000+), but leaves more tenured employees at a lower rate to account for it. - Consultant leg of the company works overtime to fund Engineering's "pet" projects - Engineers are asked to develop on a proprietary programming language, thus hurting their marketability if/when they want to switch positions. - CEO, Founders, and upper management have lost touch with their talent and client base, as a result they are hemorrhaging old business and new revenue sources. - No semblance of work/life balance. They want to be a google, but they don't foster the right creative environment for brilliant minds. You will be micromanaged and expected to put in more and more hours without additional support. - High turnover in Professional Services/Consultant branch of the company at all levels and high turnover of senior staff in Engineering speaks volumes about how Appian mismanages talent.

      avatar
      Appian Response
      9y
      Thank you for your positive comments approving of our CEO, our good people and great potential. I do need to correct a few misstatements. We don’t trick people into working long hours with piles of food, office perks and mandatory fun. Everything about Appian – including our headquarters surrounded by restaurants and entertainment you can walk to – is designed for openness. We want you to enrich our culture with your interests and relationships outside Appian. That’s our strength. We should hire more recent college graduates, not less. Most people who join Appian stay five years or more, turnover remains low, so the real culture threat is forgetting what made this company great – being open to new ideas, new energy, and valuing potential and personality over past experience in hiring decisions. We don’t want to be Google or anybody else. We are happy being Appian. The business is quite strong and growing quickly and Appian customer satisfaction is the highest in our market segment. Don’t take my word for it -- just check the independent ratings from Gartner Research published last week. Every idea is heard and considered, but good strategy dictates making hard choices about which ideas can be executed well. If you have worked with Appian’s CEO, you would know Matt’s voice is never raised to drown out other’s opinions. Appian's Women’s Leadership Program (WLP) is a self-organized group led by high-performing women that have help us build and sustain a meritocratic culture at Appian that empowers, not silences diverse viewpoints. WLP helps Appian network with leading lights outside our company to measure and improve ourselves. As for Appian Engineers, most develop with Facebook React.js and Java – great tools and in very high demand. I believe you are referring to Appian’s use of Kx. Kx is an innovative NoSQL technology used for Big Data and high-performance analytics that is also used by some of the biggest financial services organizations in the world. In case you had not heard, experience working with a Big Data platform like Kx is an extremely valuable and marketable skillset. Right now, only a few engineers get to work with Kx inside Appian. For candidates considering a career with us, please feel free to bring up any points raised in this post with your interviewers. We look forward to showing you the real Appian. -Michael, Co-founder & CTO, Appian
      1.0
      Sep 24, 2024

      Most Incompetent Leadership I've Had Pleasure to Work for

      Marketing
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Some of the people that were there were solid, even if they weren't operating in the best conditions.

      Cons

      It sucks to feel like you are on a sinking ship. I truly don't understand how given how out-of-touch and fickle leadership is that Appian has gotten this far. I've never seen a company succeed in spite of itself. Most of the AI is window dressing. Leadership is always chasing trends, which is why we are never able to keep a 1 year strategy for more than 2 months. Leadership is so busy pandering to the CEO that they have little time to provide direction, or goals. They continue to cut folks to save costs, and that cost cutting just overwhelms the survivors.

      avatar
      Appian Response
      1y
      Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We appreciate your candid thoughts, and we're sorry to hear that your experience has been frustrating. At Appian, we strive to foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, and we take your feedback seriously. This is an industry that moves fast, and we understand that change can sometimes feel unsettling. We’re committed to improving the ways we communicate and execute our long-term plans. Our leadership is unusually proactive in creating a consistent and forward-thinking strategy. For example, our CEO in partnership with the executive team and with inputs from employees at all levels created a strategy playbook for 2025 in July. We actively worked on ensuring that our teams are aligned with the company’s vision, so we followed with a two-pager summary in August as well to make it more digestible, and during September and October teams across the company have contributed to building out specific plans to implement our strategy. Your feedback will be shared with the appropriate teams as we continue to work toward these goals. Again, thank you for your input, and we wish you the best in your future endeavors.
      3.0
      Jul 12, 2024

      Sinking ship

      Account executive
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Good people, product, and work/life balance

      Cons

      Leadership is generally poor, cycles usually once or twice a year due to layoffs. Compensation is below industry average, and almost no one hits quota. Maybe 10% of the team will hit their number, 40% get within 80% of their number, and the rest fall pretty short. Sales cycles from initial introduction can be up to 1.5years, and C-suite is constantly implementing policies that make it more difficult to sell due to constraints on the sales org or customers.

      avatar
      Appian Response
      1y
      Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. It's wonderful to hear that you found the people at Appian to be supportive and friendly, combined with balanced responsibilities contributing to its reputation as a great workplace. We want to assure you that we take this feedback seriously. Your feedback regarding leadership, and the overall workplace culture is invaluable. We acknowledge that there are always areas for improvement, and your insights will certainly be part of the ongoing conversations as we continue to assess and refine our processes and leadership approach. While it’s disappointing to learn that your experience led you to feel this way, we appreciate your candor and will take your feedback seriously as we strive to create a more positive experience for all employees. Wishing you all the best in your future endeavors.
      Viewing 28 - 30 of 787 Reviews
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      Glassdoor has 862 Appian reviews submitted anonymously by Appian employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Appian is right for you.