Autonomy Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Autonomy

Pros – Possible changes with recent acquisition. May be lots of leads but yet to happen

Cons – Horrible arogent culture. Lots of b players. Small percentage of people survive very long.

Advice to Senior Management – Change attitude if your interested in retaining and even attracting great people. Get organized and help employees understand how to go to market

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – Autonomy had very interesting technology that is perhaps ahead of it's time. There are smart subject matter experts that can help sell to the right opportunity. There is a very generous compensation package heavily weighted on closed deals.

Cons – The is no sales training, but rather two days of presentation training. There is no knowledge transfer of how to succeed. There is nothing that one would relate to a traditional, complex, high dollar sales experience where credibility, competence, and trusting relationships are essential. It's no wonder why they turn over 90% of the sales force every year. There is a very generous compensation package for those who can achieve it, but mainly if you are lucky enough to join the meritocracy that get the leads worth pursuing. It's a shame. This company should be twice as big as it is. I've seen a lot of great sales people leave because of the environment, the intimidation, the micro-management, the many inefficiencies. There are way too few people becoming successful here.

Advice to Senior Management – Read "Principle Centered Leadership" by Stephen Covey. Have a vision and share it, so that those on the front line can get excited about it, and want to follow you in to battle with a purpose in mind. Maybe the leadership at HP can teach you some things after the acquisition. They will never tolerate what goes on now. Best wishes!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – Starting pay is usually fair.
Local management tries to motivate and lead but has no real authority and ability to make local decisions.

Cons – Products are not designed, coded and tested. They are coded and deployed. Huge amounts of re-work. Upper management likes to claim that Autonomy can do anything in 3 weeks. Agreed, as long as it is not really expected to work.
Company products are categorized by "Power", "Protect" and "Promote". All employees know that the biggest category is "Pretend"..

Advice to Senior Management – Pass this mess on to actual managers and leaders to fix..

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Autonomy

Pros – If you get lucky and land a monster deal, you can make a ton of money.

Cons – No tech resources. No training. No leads. Unhappy customers due to lack of support.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in sales reps. Avoid high turnover. Respect reps.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – Free Coffee
Every other Friday is a free breakfast and Lunch. Free use of the microwave. Casual dress code for San Jose

Cons – Expectaions are to work you like dogs and in turn you get burned out and leave. Very high turn over.
They hire straight out of college so they pay low and expect un realisitic goals to achieve.

Advice to Senior Management – Look in the mirror and ask if you would want your son or daughter to work here.
Everything is about making money. No passion on what would make employess happy and perfom better.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Autonomy

Pros – Compensation was okay, some competent people on the team.

Cons – Constant bullying from the management. Depressing environment.

Advice to Senior Management – Try to learn some basic manners and respect. Learn how to actually do management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – Free drinks in the break room. Free lunch on Fridays. A constant employee turnover means that you'll be able to meet new friends whenever they replace one of your co-workers.

Cons – Once hired, training is nonexistent; you're shown the code and simply told to "be an expert". Documentation for the code manages to be both sparse and inaccurate at the same time. Deadlines are set without negotiation; estimates are met with "that isn't good enough. It needs to be done by-" without any discussion of the problems with that possible date, or requests for information about why the original estimate was what it was. Any mistake is met with insults from your manager, and if anything goes wrong, a frantic search goes on to find a scapegoat to punish. Testing is nonexistent. No clear chain of command; any request made by your manager may end up infringing on the systems under the control of three different people, all of whom insist you do nothing for fear of messing up their own programs, and any attempt at referring this conflict to management is met simply with a restatement of your original objective. Constant oppressive gloom of fear coats the entire company; I don't believe I saw a single person smile while on the premises.

Advice to Senior Management – An oppressive atmosphere of fear and ignorance only extracts the minimum amount of work from employees needed to get you to go away. Either start treating your employees better, or hope word doesn't get around about you.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – - Good benefits package (health, dental, etc.)
- Core technology is solid
- Decent stock option grants for select few

**Very well-oiled separation process when you quit***

Cons – - Megalomaniacal management
- Terrible, unpredictable bonus plan for many employees
- Generous use of FIBCAMM (Fear and Intimidation-Based Computer-Aided Micro Management)
- Growth through acquisition w/little understanding of businesses acquired
- Steady loss of talent and intellectual capital in units outside core business
- Financial success in spite of myriad flaws has convinced management there's no need to change or adapt

Advice to Senior Management – Doesn't matter--they don't want, wouldn't heed it, and would never accept it for what it is--honest feedback. They are likely very proud of the fact that Autonomy has the worst rating of any company on this site--proof that only the fittest will survive. So be it.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Autonomy

Pros – Free sodas,
Ocasional free lunch
Sales Kickoff meeting is in Miami
Travel?
Nice offices

Cons – Sales management process consumes a lot of time--but spent actually selling
No performance reviews
No raises
Compensation plans are over-engineered and stacked to be in Autonomy's favor

Advice to Senior Management – Hire competent management, who knows how to train, motivate and retain people.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Autonomy

Pros – Management knows the way to get the best profit for the company. Great sales force that gets the products sold to the customers.

Cons – Non-Silicon Valley working culture. One way communication from the top. Recognition is minimal. No performance review. Employees are not shared with the company direction and vision. Upper management doesn't seem to be interested in employee feedback. Employees are assigned with tasks as it goes and told to work on them with no question asked, and yet, direction changes often and is confusing.

Advice to Senior Management – Besides selling the product, spend some time to listen more to all employee feedback.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend