Axon reviews

3.6

62% would recommend to a friend

(759 total reviews)
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Rick Smith

78% approve of CEO

66% positive business outlook

Axon has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 759 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Axon employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

759 reviews
5.0
Aug 12, 2016

Tech, Culture, Passion

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've been working at TASER (Axon) for a few months. I declined a Google offer to come here. I absolutely have no regrets for the following reasons: 1. Tech Team The tech team has a high bar - folks mostly coming from Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google or start ups. There is a high ration of Senior developers to younger developers. Everyone is active in each others projects and code reviews: sharing ideas, insights, and best practices. Most software team managers are senior devs who split their time between managing and coding. They understand your work, give you guidance, and respect the balancing act between quality engineering and delivery time. 2. Tech Projects From a technical perspective, there are bountiful opportunities here. With more potential projects than people, you are guaranteed to be given an impactful role designing new systems and services. Axon will keep you busy, keep you challenged, and keep you learning. I do not see this trend slowing down for quite a while. 3. Culture Even though we all have a ton of interesting work on our hands, we take the time to celebrate our success. We have some sort of social on a weekly basis (organize thanks to our wonderful happiness team). Monthly desert parties, tech talks, spur of the moment decisions to all go jump in Lake Union, chocolate extravaganzas, and a healthy dose of daily doubles ping-pong. We know how to have fun here! 4. Passion We have a daily impact on the lives of officers around the globe. We all know the potential this company has and the importance of the ecosystem we are building! From a professional level to a personal level - choosing to come work at TASER was a stellar decision.

Cons

There is no straight forward career path other than the jump to Senior, which makes it harder to define your growth form an external perspective. Personally, I'm not too worried. I hope to stay here as long as I continue to be challenged intellectually.

2.0
Aug 6, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Our products can truly save lives, and protect the truth of the officer or the public, whomever is in the right. Most departments have a few good employees that truly care about the company and its customers' safety. This is one of the only reasons we have forward momentum, besides veteran employee hard work prior. A few good benefits are relaxed dress code, free coffee, a few free lunches, bonuses can be good. Some officers are very happy with our products and that helps maintain our loyalty and extremely hard work. I can see a path forward for myself, still, and that is what motivates me.

Cons

Unfortunately, there are entire agencies who are frustrated with or hate our products, and some have paid the price for low cost parts, unrealistic schedules and arbitrary, hard deadlines that limit what the product quality could be. Everyone on these teams know the same story, there is insufficient time to do things right, and every few years we hear that we are not going to do repeat those mistakes, but it happens on the very next project when dates cannot be met, or quality is subpar, despite the teams giving it their all. Dates are set long before we know what is feasible, and no adjustments are considered acceptable, despite the warnings of the team experts. Eventually, this leads to certain failure (which was predicted by subject matter experts), and it is always sketchy if the people trying to save the project will be thrown under the bus at any moment. Some departments have cancerous management or employees, and have been legitimately reported for their destructive decision making when it defies logic and product quality, and costs the company alot of money, and project schedule but they are still there. Our products involve personal and career risk to our customers, we should not take this lightly or ignore brutal facts. Key employees are leaving the company despite wanting to stay but they can't justify it under this toxic work environment of a single individual VP. The tribal knowledge that has left over the past few months and years is irreplaceable, and nearly all of it was avoidable. Warnings were given, and ignored. These departments are now struggling, but refuse to admit it, and worse, mid and upper management are not held accountable because they hide the fact that the employee could have been compensated fairly, but refused to do so.

5.0
Jul 26, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company is focused on globally improving society, Strong leadership with clear vision and direction, purposeful work, enjoyable work environment, progressive and modern atmosphere and corporate philosophy. Please read the below anecdote to better understand this company: 8 Days ago, we unexpectedly and tragically lost a member of the weapons sales team. Within a day, 2 members of the team were on site assisting the family and coordinating for the rest of the team to attend the services. In short order, TASER graciously approved to absorb travel expenses for about 20 people (the entire weapons team and a few leaders including the EVP of Global sales and the President) so that we could all attend the services for our dear friend and colleague. Adding to the devastation was the fact our colleague had recently fathered his first child with his wife, a beautiful 2 month old girl who will grow up not knowing her father. Shortly after the news broke, the company announced that it was going to start a college fund for this little girl with a VERY generous contribution from the company directly and an encouragement to the employees to add to that amount with whatever they could, even providing assistance with the donations being directly taken from payroll. The amount raised will likely never become public but rest assured it is significant. One important note, even though the company covered the expenses for so many of us to attend, I have zero doubts we would have all attended regardless of who was footing the bill. The moral of my story is this; many companies preach a "family" environment but very few would actually go to the lengths TASER International does because when the chips are down, they care more about the bottom line than the values on which the company may have been built. TASER will never exploit a tragedy like this to prove that they truly foster a family environment but the way the company stepped up and proved it in this instance is worth sharing. If you want to join a true family that is working hard to make this world a better one, then find a way to join TASER. It's demanding work but it's with the right people, doing the right things, for the right reasons.

Cons

Some mild growing pains due to quick growth, resources heavily dedicated to the strong growth side of the business (axon) hopefully not at the expense of the company's original mission and product line.

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Glassdoor has 862 Axon reviews submitted anonymously by Axon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Axon is right for you.