Coalfire reviews

3.6

61% would recommend to a friend

(411 total reviews)

Brad Little

58% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Coalfire has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 411 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Coalfire 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

411 reviews
2.0
Apr 29, 2020

Coalfire is mediocre at best...

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Coalfire is a great place to start your offensive security journey...keyword is start. Easy to just collect a paycheck and act like your a cool hacker. The people are welcoming and most are good to work with. There were many employee groups to get involved in. The CEO is a good person and does care about employees.

Cons

Disclaimer: I can only speak of my experience in Coalfire Labs (pentesting). Not everyone working as a penetration tester actually has the necessary skills and/or knowledge to perform the job or inform clients properly. Many of the people without those skills were hired anyway. Coalfire gradually pigeonholes it's pentesters with weeks/months of one type of engagment which left them frustrated and feeling like they're becoming one-dimensional. Some managers were very unprofessional and would likely cause HR issues in most other organizations. Some managers flat out shouldn't be managers, but they've simply been there long enough. Coalfire went on a "100 new hires in 100 days" campaign which suggests their lack of understanding what the process of hiring professionals really means.

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Coalfire Response
6y
First, thank you for sharing your feedback. We truly appreciate your unique experience and perspective. We’re glad you took advantage of our CoalFun program and enjoyed getting to know your Labs colleagues through events like last year’s team offsite in Puerta Vallarta. We review over 100+ resumes for each hire made to our Labs team. Candidates participate in multiple interviews and have to get through our technical panel before we extend an offer. While no recruiting process is perfect, our approach has proven to work well – after all, we hired you! However, we are always working to improve, and we would be open to any recommendations you’re willing to share. By design, Coalfire loves to see career advancement, values loyalty, and invests in extensive management training for all our managers. We also acknowledge that balancing the variety of engagements is indeed a common challenge for all pen testing firms. To address this, Coalfire has a system in place to ensure team members rotate onto various projects to diversify skillsets and exposure. It is disappointing to hear about your specific experience shared, and we’d like to hear more to understand how we can do better. If you’re willing to share, please reach out directly to askmeanything@coalfire.com.
1.0
Mar 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cybersecurity is an exciting industry to work in.

Cons

They continue to make bad hiring decisions by hiring for ‘cultural fit’ instead of hiring people who know what they’re doing. This makes them ineffective at their area of supposed expertise plus poor managers of people who often know much more than they do and can’t learn from, or respect, their manager. There is also way too much cronyism, which places unqualified people in high-level positions. There are too many high-school cliques that cause a very unprofessional atmosphere that doesn’t encourage respect.

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Coalfire Response
6y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We strive to hire the best and brightest minds in cybersecurity at Coalfire. We are committed to fostering an inclusive culture where our team members feel supported, empowered, and respected. We focus on hiring people with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas to broaden our perspectives and fuel our innovation. We’re sorry your experience has not reflected this, and we’d like to hear more about your personal experience and understand how we can do better. Feel free to reach out directly at askmeanything@coalfire.com if you are willing to share or discuss further.
1.0
Apr 13, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You could honestly not do any work at all and still have a job - if that's your thing. (It's not mine) The ERG groups can sometimes be fun.

Cons

Leadership - From VP level (there are so many) on down, Coalfire leadership refuses to own anything from their own processes to entering a business name correctly, they refuse to make decisions, and largely don't understand how to lead. At Coalfire, they believe leadership is saying "Yes" and making it happen. Clear expectations of you - I hope you don't want them because you are going to be attempting to hit a very poorly defined moving target, if you get any direction or onboarding at all. Coalfire completely lacks infrastructure, employee onboarding/training/upskilling, and any resources to support people struggling with stress or mental illness.

Viewing 22 - 24 of 411 Reviews

Glassdoor has 428 Coalfire reviews submitted anonymously by Coalfire employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Coalfire is right for you.