-I saw a review posted previously that Appian posts fake reviews to Glassdoor. This is indeed true and I encourage you to take the positive reviews here with a grain of salt. Notice how there is always a positive review or two every time a negative review is posted. Obviously, the CTO will vehemently deny this allegation.
-The culture used to be great and everyone knew each other's names. As the management became increasingly overconfident, the company struggled to keep it and its culture dissolved. Now, it's becoming more of a place where you just show up, put in your hours, and leave. The old timers have a sort of cult here where they do not welcome the new employees as warmly.
-The Professional Services side is struggling. While not all consultants can be expected to be on projects at all times, it's unreasonable for a significant portion of them to not have meaningful work.
-The best idea absolutely does not win. Your supervisor's opinions win. In all of my seven projects here, I've had to do work according to my supervisor's wishes, which are often inefficient and erroneous. The hierarchy is in fact not as flat as they claim. Again, you have to see it for yourself and the CTO will be expected to post a rebuttal to this claim. However, have real chats with people in various departments and you'll start noticing a pattern.
-The management does not provide transparency. With the addition of the recent Quick Apps feature, the need for professional services decreases. In addition, clients are increasingly hiring contractors to do the work of PS because they are cheaper. To go in tandem with this trend, Appian is focusing more on the sales and engineering side. This all points to a future with a significantly cut PS department. It's not surprising why so many people are leaving. Their work is becoming less important and being replaced.
-I do plan on leaving soon as every day feels completely repetitive and working here has become unenjoyable to say the least. The work you do often feels really insignificant and does not make an impact beyond a web page that someone may look at a few times for several minutes. However, you often spend hours and days perfecting that page and application. Appian is not what it used to be. I would agree that it used to be the place that the CTO touts but it is heading in a direction that should be avoided. They give high starting salaries to new college grads to allure them to join over taking other competing offers. I would advise against this as the skills here are non-transferable the longer you stay, the more pidgeon-holed you get into the Appian ecosystem. True, some skills such as project management and Agile methodology are commonplace but overall, there are better places to start your career, learn more and obtain useful skills, and do impactful work that feels that way, not the way the management wants it to feel.
