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CARFAX Reviews
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Full-timePart-timeApprove of CEO
Richard Raines
196 Ratings
Pros
"The work-life balance is surreal" (in 69 reviews)
"Work at your own pace, bonus program that drives employee performance, free Friday Lunch, happy hours, company events, pet friendly & more" (in 40 reviews)
Cons
"There doesn't seem to be much room for growth in many positions in the company" (in 8 reviews)
"I have no cons to add for Carfax" (in 12 reviews)
![CARFAX Logo]()
"Guilty - I totally love working here"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Not sure where to start...working for a financially successful organization (hence solid/stable) with a strong, trusted brand is amazing. The pride in what we do is evident throughout our offices and on the road with our field team everyday. I do love working with just about everyone I’ve come into contact with over the years. Every once in a while I have a head-scratching moment, whether related to a project or colleague or decision, and 9 times out of 10 I am able to leverage our trust-based, collaborative environment to get things out on the table and resolve issues or confusion in a jiffy. One must be willing to own a problem or challenge, though, and expend the energy to do so...I worry that some of the folks who drop negative reviews on GD simply haven’t “manned up,” taken ownership of a challenge, and tried to move the ball forward, because CARFAX is hands-down the best place I’ve worked in 20+ years to do something like that. Employee activities are simply AMAZING and the office/amenities keep getting better. Seeing employees’ joy from spending their days with their dog by their side or knowing they can bring a child into the office in a pinch is priceless. Are we Amazon or Google regarding our tech stack and stock options? No...but we’re also not a meat grinder where you leave every day knowing you’ll log in at home and keep on working every night and weekend. I’ll take this over that any day of the week and twice on Sunday (as my Grandma used to say).
Cons
Yes, the reviews are true, there is a ton of food at CARFAX. :-) It can be challenging to hire younger folks (and even some non-younger ones) in Centreville given the lack of social amenities around the office. As you can probably tell in the photos, our offices are very open which is great for collaboration and team camaraderie, but it can be challenging when you need some quiet space to focus.
Advice to Management
Keep the faith, be true to the Playbook, and keep pushing us to grow in a healthy way. Help us leverage the strength of our successful, multi-national parent company (IHSMarkit) without allowing them to change our business formula and culture.
CARFAX 2018-10-10 18:39 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Excellent culture"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 8 years)
Pros
Forward thinking in technology and culture. New tech all the time. Plenty of training.
Cons
Getting more corporate every day
CARFAX 2018-10-03 12:04 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Good company...but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookApproves of CEOI worked at CARFAX full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Free Friday lunch
EAP(employee appreciation party)Cons
*Flat organization absolutely no room for growth
*Favoritism
*No room for growth
*Management makes you feel like this is the best place to work...but it really isn’t
*when you go over and beyond recognition is slim to none....unless your a manger favorite.Advice to Management
Don’t get me wrong carfax is a good company and is a good starter job. But it’s not a career move. If you love the feeling of being in a repetitive day flow...then this is the place for you.
CARFAX 2018-10-18 13:43 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Account Manager"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time
Pros
Collaborative, team focused environment full of positive people working towards a clear common goal. Proves that, when you're careful about picking the right staff and consciously cultivating an incredible environment, people will work to their highest potential and have a blast doing it!
Cons
Upward mobility may take longer here because people love it so much they don't want to leave.
Advice to Management
Keep doing what you're doing, and keep working to find ways to groom and reward the top talent you've found!
CARFAX 2018-10-01 06:45 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Incredible place to work!"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
The culture and the people! The benefits are amazing and the work life balance is unparalleled. Our product is a staple in helping our dealer partners connect with the Carfax buyer. The continued effort to be more innovative with products and resources is outstanding.
Cons
Not enough promotional opportunities when looking to move up due to the retention.
CARFAX 2018-09-26 11:03 PDTHelpful (1)
![CARFAX Logo]()
"Overall a great place to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Everybody is very friendly and hardworking, the general mood is positive. Work-life balance is truly great, I have not had to work more than 40h/week or on a weekend more than a couple of times.
Cons
Some teams have a friendlier culture than others. The open office approach on some floors can make it hard to concentrate sometimes.
CARFAX 2018-09-19 13:31 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Incompetence / Lack of creativity in regards to software engineering."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Free lunches on Fridays, friendly people, comparable health | dental | medical vs the industry standard, dogs are allowed in the office.
Cons
These complaints / criticisms are focused on software engineering - not on CARFAX as a whole -
Engineers are hired on a whim - mostly based on their "individuality" vs actual competency. Usually they are hired out of school, and if not, they are often hired based knowledge of frameworks that are being used in-house - not based on CS knowledge.
There are no "senior engineers" or "junior engineers" there are just engineers. Meritocracy does not exist in Carfax's engineering org.
Very little innovation occurs at Carfax from a technical perspective (in terms of CFX producing open source software or much reusable software). There is lots of framework reliance and lots of adherence to using a certain set of patterns / technologies. There is no formalized R&D from a software dev perspective.
Like a lot of companies - Carfax has a tendency to build things that don't fall within their core umbrella of competence - which often results in wasted dev cycles and frustrated engineers.
Carfax's ambitions as an engineering organization are somewhat shadowy. They are not inline with how they are advertised (on jobvite, etc...). This is true of a lot of engineering orgs, but it is distressing. Even with experience and seniority, the job description does not match reality.
The one main criticism I will levy at Carfax, is that while it is a very fun and friendly company to work at, it's also one where I feel there is a lot of hand waving going on, to distract from actual cultural issues, and that there is very little transparency in how things are conducted / decisions are made.
Management suggest things just happen ad-hoc / they're built through "Wisdom of Crowds" - yet the collective wisdom is never made transparent beyond the fact that all employees got to fill out a piece of paper, and we just end up with the results of the decisions that are made.
You have very little voice / input as an employee, yet the company employs tactics to try to make you feel empowered. You might be empowered in a certain role if you're lucky - but it's random and definitely not based on merit or contribution.
Carfax also seems very set in its ways - although the idea that things are changing is often promoted - regression seems to be the norm more than progression.Advice to Management
I'm not sure it'd be regarded - I think Carfax knows the direction it wants to head in, and has a certain strategy in mind.
CARFAX 2018-10-01 18:05 PDTHelpful (1)
![CARFAX Logo]()
"Not quite what it once was... but still really good"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Work life balance is awesome. This company is also great about only hiring those that are upbeat, inspirational, and 'go-getters. Therefore; it is easy to feed off of the team's energy! I love our company conference events, and the feeling of being 'part of the team'.
Cons
We hear the word culture used so often, but rarely actually see it being displayed anymore. It hurts me to say it, but I honestly do not feel that we have a culture here anymore. Most of the changes over the past 2 years have made it feel more and more like 'Corporate America'. Also, communication from the top to the bottom is lacking. The Sr team quite obviously has no clue what happens in the field, yet they dictate our next move. It's quite confusing and frustrating at times
Advice to Management
Reevaluate pay scales across the market and get back to the days when we had a great culture
CARFAX 2018-09-18 06:52 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"CARFAX- a great place to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
CARFAX provides state of the art systems to insure we are able to preform our jobs efficiently. They truely believe in work life balance and their communication to every level of the company is hands down the best I have experienced.
Cons
I have no cons at this time.
Advice to Management
Keep up the great job, I am so proud to be employed by such an outstanding company. So proud I wear my work gear in the evenings and weekends... that’s saying a lot!
CARFAX 2018-09-04 09:16 PDT![CARFAX Logo]()
"Inside Sales"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at CARFAX full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Benefits, flexibility, all employees input matters and is listened too, free lunches on Fridays plus goodies here and there all the time, and amazing co-workers!
Cons
Too much fun sometimes! If that's possible!
CARFAX 2018-09-04 09:17 PDT
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CARFAX Response
19 Oct, 2018 – Director, HR
Thank you for the review! We will always stay true to the Playbook and feed you well!!!