Built for the future, brought to you by the past - Associate Applications Developer Workday Employee Review

2.0
Nov 9, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The Generation Workday program really does do its best to acclimate new grads into the workforce. It's an easy way to meet a lot of really cool people. Workday also tends to hire really honestly nice people as new hires. The snack program is fantastic.

Cons

Make no mistake: Workday is PeopleSoft, Peoplesoft is Oracle, and, no matter how much they try to convince themselves, Workday is Oracle. There is zero career advancement at Workday, and it's designed that way. The management chain from the bottom-up is almost exclusively ex-Oracle, ex-Peoplesoft folk. Oracle employees are actively recruited for management or high-priority roles. There are very few people (to the point where I don't know any, but I've heard of them) who came in to Workday in management positions. If you are not PeopleSoft alumni, your chances of advancement are very, very slim. Internal transfers are slim-to-none despite the constant talks they give new hires about them occurring after their first 12 months. That'd be fine and all if this is just a stop-gap in a career, but as an engineer, Workday has designed a tech-stack that essentially tries to ensure employment solely at Workday. It's all proprietary non-programming, and resembles nothing even remotely similar to programming. It's entirely useless for any future jobs. Don't buy into the "Well, there's a lot of similar ideas and principles with traditional programming languages" talk they give: it's nothing like programming. It's just clicking, and clicking and more clicking. It makes things easy for them, and much harder for the worker, as it's extremely easy to become complacent and your forget traditional programming skills. Working at Workday is a dead end. If you're young and non-Peoplesoft, I cannot stress how important it is to stay far, far away.

Explore other reviews about Workday

5.0
Apr 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Excellent software makes it easy to support.

Cons

Focus on AI distracting from real work.

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Workday Response
1mo
Thank you for your review, we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience at Workday. We're committed to fostering an open, inclusive culture, and feedback like yours helps us continue to grow and improve for all our Workmates.
4.0
Mar 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, benefits, culture, and pay. Lots of "workmates" with long tenures (10+ years). I truly wanted to retire from Workday!

Cons

Leadership changes freaked a lot of people out. Things felt unstable within the org for the last year (2025). The culture shifted from one that focused on employee growth to adopt all AI at all costs, and do it yesterday! It was extremely stressful to learn so much, so quickly, and create your own use cases and custom workflows - then to ultimately be laid off despite significant contributions.

1
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Workday Response
2mo
Thank you for your valuable input. At Workday, we pride ourselves on fostering a transparent workplace, maintaining the highest ethical standards, and promoting innovation. It's heartening to hear about your positive journey as a Workmate. We continue to be committed to delivering exceptional experiences for our Workmates.
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