Chef Software Reviews

Time and time again, I have witnessed leadership fail to take ownership of their own mistakes. From laying off entire teams only to rehire for the role a year later without any apology to the folks that were impacted by the decision to shipping horrible products filled with technical debt and a poor understanding of market fit, the executive team at Chef only ever blames its employees, rather than taking ownership of its own mistakes. I have regularly seen my female colleagues that I know to be excellent leaders overlooked for less capable men. I have seen them asked to leave the company in spite of tremendous success. Arbitrary deadlines are the primary driver for product development. The company frequently ships incomplete products that have not been fully thought through simply to get software shipped in time for its annual conference.

- Chef suffers from stale leadership. Product strategy, engineering execution, and go-to-market are failing due to executives who do not have experience performing at the required levels to continue growth, and have been there too long to look at problems creatively. - Apathetic management hurts the standards for hiring and promotion. Constant turnover and recruitment targets have lowered the bar for culture fit and capability, and have moved forward with candidates even when teams voiced concerns. You will need to manage your own growth and learning, and there is no clear path to promotion even when you invest the time to improve. - Teams remain siloed and decisions are made that impact you without your input. Constant re-orgs negatively affect customer relationships and software quality. - As many have said, Chef is not what it used to be. There was a familial culture and a focus on growing the business by delivering solid products to customers. Unfortunately, increasing amounts of venture capital spent on over-hiring and a lavish office put pressure on engineering and sales to deliver more, leading to burnout. - Regarding the suggestion that “mediocrity, laziness” play any part in people’s reviews: that is a shallow opinion and not fair to other’s experiences. Many high performers have left due to limited career growth and exhaustion. Chef is well past start-up phase; it is an 8-year old company with 5 rounds of funding operating in a market (configuration management) that has easily entered maturity.