A dinosaur of a company with a toxic culture and little room for growth
Pros
There are some generally wonderful people at Turnitin, although a vast majority of them are leaving in droves.
Cons
Where to start? Turnitin is not like any other tech company. Whereas other Bay Area tech companies value entrepreneurship, growth, and risk-taking, Turnitin is run by a conservative c-suite that rarely takes meaningful risks and has little interest in making a large scale impact in the Ed Tech field. This is a company that sells software to schools, not a true Ed Tech company; there is a difference. The technology is ancient and riddled with tech debt. In addition, the engineering team has a tough time taking on meaningful projects because they spend most of their time and resources maintaining a relic of a tech stack that's littered with vestigial code and a database that requires an ungodly level of SQL knowledge to make any meaningful queries. And how about the culture? Turnitin is a company that makes large decisions behind closed doors and rarely involves rank and file employees with decisions that directly impact them. I remember that time they decided to develop core values - seemingly overnight - foist them upon the employees, and rarely bring them up in the future. While the CEO is a well meaning person, he's rarely involved in the well-being of individual contributors and there is a major disconnect between him and the rest of the org. The overall culture is politically toxic - I'm not the first reviewer to mention this - and any semblance of a meritocracy is a thinly veiled attempt to hide a company and managerial team that has real issues identifying and retaining top industry talent. As acidic as this may sound, you have to wonder why the median age at Turnitin is so much higher than the rest of the industry. Young talent is not fostered and new thinking - which the company desperately needs - is never given a voice. In terms of career growth, there's little to none. Leveling charts are few and far between and there is no actual commitment to lateral or vertical movement of employees. This would explain why people are leaving the company in order to actually move into roles that challenge and suit them. Capable employees are fired arbitrarily and "lifers" are kept onboard regardless of their ability. This is a company where people go to cash out, not begin their careers. So, avoid this company. Work somewhere where you feel needed and where you'll actually have room to grow.
