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Dolby

Heavy use of Program Managers without engineering backgrounds serving as the strong arm of management to beat up on engineering teams.  Software engineers hired by their friends from Apple and Avid to lead hardware development and senior management without an understanding of product development.  Management only provides goals for the larger team in general, not smaller teams or individuals.  Lack of field experience for engineers to see how our products are used.  Many of our top hardware engineers have quit out of frustration with the blocking of ideas from engineering being heard by the management team.  Dolby never used to have layoffs, now they're a regular event, making employees constantly wondering if they'll have a job when they badge in every morning.  There's a lack of transparency of the uncertainty and doubt that goes along with product development.  Lots of long time employees keep the older culture that Ray Dolby fostered but that's fading away.  There's a culture of work scarcity, people fearing for their jobs, not sharing their work.  No mentorship at all.  Management is open about hiring cheaper labor outside of the San Francisco area.  Moving to an open cubicle environment was done without training employees how to operate in that environment.  This created a lot of tension between loud social people and those desiring a library like environment.  Many food opportunities in the area but lots of employees fear walking out of the building due to the literal insanity around the Mid-Market/Civic Center neighborhood.  Cafe is of college dorm quality, slowly getting cost reduced.  Christmas party is held in the building and scarcely attended, another sign of Dolby tightening the belt on employee spending.  We have a hard time hiring new talent due to the low salaries.  Great place to be exposed to emerging entertainment technologies.  Employees that drive in have to pay for parking which is partly subsidized, parking inside the building is done on a lottery system.  Few people get stock options as part of their yearly review.  401(k) and benefits are top notch.  There's a fitness center onsite but it's often empty, a reflection on Dolby's work/life balance.  It's the people that made me stay, there are teams and relationships that are built from long tenures, something that's impossible to build in a company with quick turnover.

At Dolby, most processes are run using the scrum methodology; thus, everyday engineers have a specific task to accomplish as part of a project. Sometime in the afternoon, a scrum daily meeting is held to ensure that project activities are not blocked by any other member of a team. Sprints have a two-week duration to fulfill specific goals.
For the most part, managers are walking around to help anybody that may have a problem to fulfill their tasks. For the most part, managers leave room to operate employees without feeling micromanaged but they will check with employees that work is ongoing without trouble (trust but verify!).
Dolby has an environment conducive to learning, and I took opportunity of it by learning as much as I could. I learned about digital audio and everything related to lossy and lossless audio. I had the opportunity to advise on how to improve signal to noise ratio in digital to analog design of Audio/Video Amplifiers and some other items. I also learned plenty on audio testing of consumer electronic products.
I had the opportunity to learn and improve test automation of consumer devices, and automating testing of audio software used by Dolby licensees.
At Dolby, I was given the opportunity to manage a group of six engineers on average that were responsible for developing test material to verify proper operation of Dolby technologies in consumer products (DMAs, BD players, STB broadcast devices, etc). It was a very fulfilling job as I mentored engineers for upper mobility.
Dolby's culture is based on respect for each other, providing an environment for personal and professional growth, and for allowing time off from the hectic schedule (social gatherings and movie nights).
The only area that I see problematic at Dolby is that they do not plan for allowing employees to adapt to changes in corporate direction. But this is a sin shared by most tech companies across the board.
All in all, I had a very productive, exciting and entertaining job at Dolby. I would strongly recommend Dolby as a great place for working.

(This review is for the SF location only.  The Beijing, Germany, Poland and Australia sites are completely different.)

It's getting better, but slowly.  Dolby's increased their headcount by >60% in the last 2-3 years and experiencing understandable scaling issues.  The workforce in SF consists mostly of employees with either >10 years or <3 years of experience.  There are unfortunately a few insecure bad apples due to the old guard's tendency to promote new hires too quickly and trust too much at the start of Dolby's expansion.  Ironically, there are still a few key (veteran) contributors who could have been better empowered or resourced to ensure Dolby's success.

The majority of the people have great integrity and passion for excellence and teamwork - typically the >10 year set, and primarily in the Dev Eng  and QA groups.  This is a consensus culture that's not in a hurry and confrontation is a taboo.  

The unfortunate part is the damage the less-capable newer managers inflict on their groups, driving some very talented people out.  Some stellar managers here, but it's inconsistent. Just need to be aware of the personality of your direct manager. There have been a handful of mysterious "hire and fire at-will" incidents in the past 1-2 years, driven not by performance but by manager insecurities.

Having said that, the pace here is great for work-life balance.  There's little sense of urgency compared with that of the rest of the Bay Area (e.g. only mild reaction when an engineering team says there will be a delay of "about a month" two weeks before an expected release).  It's a place one can go home at 5p every day, product managers can go on 3-week vacations without a backup, and weekends have email traffic of less than 10 messages.  There is zero pressure to adjust your vacation plans in any way to minimize impact on the business.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Exciting technology and great people. We also have a 9/80 schedule, which means we work 80 hours in 9 days and therefore take every other Friday off. It allows for a really nice work/life balance. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Goals and roadmaps change regularly, so it’s often hard to understand what’s a priority. Communication from leadership is always challenging because the organization is very hierarchical and old school.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Still navigating hybrid work, so the culture is shifting. It doesn’t seem very purposeful though.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Work from home most days in a very meeting heavy culture, so lots of conference calls. I am able to set boundaries around focus time so I can concentrate on deep work, which is important.

I worked at Dolby for 5+ years.

Let's start with the pros:
-Smart, talented, hard-working employees.  
-Free parking for employees
-Shuttle service to and from BART and other Dolby buildings.  
-Paid Holidays (including December holiday shutdown)
-And probably the BEST perk...every other Friday off!

Now the cons:
-No work life balance (everyone is a slave to email)
-Hard work expected but often not rewarded, recognized, or appreciated
-No real work force planning.  Little opportunity for growth (except for chosen few)
-Leadership slow to make decisions
-Cool "products" but not cool culture - Boring environment, does not feel like a cool, cutting edge, high-tech place to work
-Little to no diversity (white male dominated culture)
-Pay is decent but low compared to other high-tech companies
-Too much time spent in pointless meetings

Acted as a lesion between Dolby Laboratories and all Movie Studios to promote DOLBY HEADPHONE technology to the Airline Industry.
Dolby Headphone is a virtual Surround sound experience reproduced in standard stereo headphones.
Helped introduce Multi-channel Music to the World via seminars.

Management provided an environment for independent thinking and motivation.
Co-workers were excellent and supportive.

Extensive travel throughout the Country, and occasionally Internationally was sometimes difficult.

Public speaking and teaching Dolby technologies to Retail associates and consumers gave me great pleasure.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Interesting technology. Great work life balance.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Passive aggressive culture, resistance to change.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture is kind of bland. Executives don’t really talk about culture much.
Strategy is super high level so it’s often unclear how to connect the dots between the strategy and how we get there. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Every day is different, but you can count on a lot of meetings!

They have a huge problem with  management turn over and that seems to result in large employee turn over rates. I was there for a year and I saw at least 2 cases where they had a contractor for 4 months, hired them directly then fired them less than a week later. I also saw more than three contractors they had to let go because they had been there too long and didn't hire them (supposedly because they couldn't get an FTE).
There is little chance for advancement unless you want to change careers. 

Dolby has hired a lot of smart, fun, talented and hard working people over the years. Unfortunately, after going public I feel that the talents were wasted (mostly in the Marketing group) due to the lack of leadership and focus from upper management. Until the dust settles at the company, I would never recommend working there to anyone.

Starting from an entry-level event planner to a trade show manager was quite a ride. There were great co-workers and managers were willing to provide insights to help with your professional development. But as the company grew, politics bogged down progress as more time as spent dealing with internal battles rather than focusing on customers and new opportunities.

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