After Adobe
- 2%Founded something9
- 16%Joined a startup58
- 40%Joined a big company147
- 42%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Adobe most often go to Google, Meta and Microsoft. Of them, 16% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 3m
Not Adobe's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 576 people on a map of 67,181, No. 36 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 5760.9% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 19334% of the people here
- Moved on
- 38366% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 3mmiddle half 1y to 4y 3m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Amazon. Most leave for Google (9% of recorded departures).
95 of 486 recorded arrivals shown, 391 more from 349 other companies135 of 387 recorded departures shown, 252 more to 220 other companies
The Adobe mafia
9 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 2% of those who moved on, half of them within 5 months of leaving. The bars cover the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
24%<1y
19%1-2y
30%2-4y
17%4-7y
11%7y+
456 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
7612
11913
8714
242015
332116
532417
693918
604719
374320
615221
675722
423423
563224
483525
31726
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 607 joined, 433 left.
Caliber
79mediantop 10%88
0Eng Scorer caliber, 231 scored99
there now 77 moved on 81. The people who left score higher than the people still there.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer94
- Software Engineer Intern55
- Senior Software Engineer53
- Machine Learning Engineer39
- Research Intern33
- Computer Scientist22
- Software Development Engineer21
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer15
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 14% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 14%Exceptional or strong32 people
- 29%Solid68 people
- 52%Emerging120 people
- 5%Unproven11 people
231 of the 576 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
32 of the 231 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 14%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed with the one next to it, because that few is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
42%Titles that rose160 of 384 classified people
- 42%Rose160 people
- 51%Stayed level196 people
- 7%Fell28 people
384 of the 576 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- UC Berkeley10.5%
- Stanford9.5%
- Carnegie Mellon7.2%
- Georgia Tech6.3%
- UCLA4.0%
- USC3.3%
- San Jose State3.2%
- University of Washington3.2%
The 8 most listed schools among the 571 people here with a school on file.
60 of the 571 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 54 list Stanford and 41 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
36%have a public GitHub account on their profile
206 of the 576 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
66% of the people who have worked at Adobe and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Adobe
Everyone on the map
- 66%SF Bay Area380 · map 41%
- 13%New York75 · map 18%
- 6%Seattle32 · map 5%
- 3%Washington DC19 · map 13%
- 3%Los Angeles17 · map 5%
- 1%Austin6 · map 0.8%
- 1%Boston6 · map 2%
- 0.5%Atlanta3 · map 1%
- 7%Somewhere else38
All 576 people who worked at Adobe list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Adobe: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Adobe, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 576 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Adobe: 193 are there now, 383 have moved on.
- Most leave for Google: 36 people, 9% of recorded departures. Then Meta and Microsoft.
- Most arrive from Amazon: 17 people. Then Google and Microsoft.
- Median tenure at Adobe: 2y 3m, middle half 1y to 4y 3m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Adobe, 2% went to a founder title next, 16% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 40% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 79 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 231 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 60 of the 571 people here with one on file (10.5%). Then Stanford (54).
- 66% of the 576 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 36% of the 576 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 160 rose, 196 stayed level, 28 fell, out of the 384 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Adobe? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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