Intuit

Pros

• Total compensation package was good (pay, stocks, 401k matching).
• Beautiful campus and excellent food.
• Amenities such as free food and beer on Fridays, and free gym usage, where other companies are charging employees ~$20 just to shower.
• There is a ton of diversity and some of the best people I've had a chance to work with.

How many people does it take? Definitely too many cooks in the kitchen for certain jobs.

Always looking out for #1, always?

Promoting oneself always seemed to be among the top in a priority list, even when promoting means lip service.

Becoming too cushy

I've heard it once referred to as a "country club." While the environment is okay and the amenities are top-notch, the daily work is something to be undesired. I referred to it as "a nice place to retire from without the security," since the fear of losing one's job is more evident.

Agile methods

The use of agile methodologies is poor, and our "scrum masters" merely follow the process verbatim without questioning its usefulness. How useful is a one-hour scrum every day for a small group where the same regurgitated info is mentioned three times out of the week? I don't understand the use of explaining what we're working on when we clearly have it entered in two to three other areas throughout a monthly sprint.

Meeting junkies

Meetings for everything, I mean everything! If it involves more than two people, that's an automatic meeting instead of just going over and speaking to the person(s).

Whenever senior management did come down to San Diego to give us a pep talk about how the company is doing, it felt more like a cheerleading squad clamoring on about how great the company is doing and comparing "us" to other "software giants" like Apple and Google. While I understand this is more for morale than anything, the companies you are comparing Intuit to are in a completely different domain and business. Let's admire the accomplishments and see what we can learn and leverage, but let's not "try" to become the next Apple or Google. Concentrate on doing what you're good at and expand. Social, mobile, OK fine, that's a great niche market but not generally something to get the whole company aroused about just because a Quicken app is up at the Apple store.

CG is your biggest money maker that is losing its pie to smaller competitors like TaxAct. The current CEO slogan is "this isn't your grandma's Intuit." Well, during my time there, I certainly felt like it was organized that way. One can only sugarcoat a cover of TurboTax year after year while having the same product underneath. Take more risks while you are ahead now; soon that gap will erode as your core business gets eaten away by smaller fish.

Place more of your eggs in other baskets. Another interesting Intuitism of "learn fast, fail fast," start practicing this instead of waiting for the next annual tax season or waiting for the Federal government to dictate how you should service them.