The Good, Bad, and the Ugly - Director Dolby Employee Review

2.0
Sep 15, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Dolby is transforming the way entertainment looks and sounds -- and that's no exaggeration! There are brilliant engineers working hard as I type to expand the audiovisual palette for film directors, game designers, and others -- while ensuring the entertainment we enjoy looks and sounds just as the creative artists intended. It is no surprise that many of those engineers are artists in their spare time and that can make for a wonderfully rich work environment. Some more pluses: Every other Friday is off, though most people end up working from home. Cool new HQ in mid-market. Great marks for age diversity compared to other SF Bay Area start-ups: 20 somethings work alongside 50-somethings. (There are so few people over 40 at some SF tech companies, one begins to suspect older folks are taken out and shot...)

Cons

Bureaucratic. Political. S-L-O-W. Homogenous (except for age). And especially bad for women: There is only one female board member. Zero female EVPs. Zero female SVPs. A handful of female VPs (compared to dozens and dozens of men with similar rank). Marketing department is out of touch with the times. At one point they hired real marketing mavericks, but they got frustrated and left within a couple of years. Stock is doing extremely poorly and reflects the company's lack of growth.

Explore other reviews about Dolby

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice people and great work life balance

Cons

Antiquated business processes have made it difficult to enter into the modern era, often leading to spending time working on the wrong things.

4.0
Jun 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of freedom in choosing research topics

Cons

Too many meetings, but it may be just specific to the group I was in

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