Sun Microsystems Reviews in Denver, CO Area

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – -nice campus
-diversity
-good training
-tools are handy

Cons – - they laid people off in a second

Advice to Senior Management – People are people!

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Sun was an innovative company, at least at one time. They prided themselves on being great in a new space.

Cons – Did not do well after server market crashed. Did not do well with several mergers. Got acquired by Oracle on the cheap.

Advice to Senior Management – Please have a concrete strategy of where you would like to go when you acquire a company. First, second, and third options would be valuable.

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Great, intelligent people
Work/Life balance
Remote/telecommute
Eco-Responsible company
Great reputation

Cons – No job security whatsoever
Poor upper management
Reorganizations too frequent
Lack of processes

Advice to Senior Management – Hopefully this is a moot point as it is now Oracle mgmt running the show.

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Very much as free and open environment for employees. What it lacks in stability, it makes up for in benefits, pay, and freedom.

Cons – Just a matter of time before the ship sunk, and all the employees left either voluntarily or involuntarily. Executive management never did find out how to make income exceed outgo on a lot of world-class products.

Advice to Senior Management – Too late now.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Work/life balance is great, as well as the compensation and flexibility.

Cons – There is an inability to really make a difference and be heard, due to the size and remote worker scenario.

Advice to Senior Management – Give the company a big haircut at the top and get rid of the fatness of middle management. Too many engineers and non-business educated people trying to run the business like it's a game or something. Get some real marketing expertise, please.

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Good benefits, competitive pay, and great work life balance. Some really great people at Sun.

Cons – The company has been struggling for some time so beware if you are looking for job security. Layoffs come every 6 months and reorganizations are almost just as often.

Advice to Senior Management – Open communication with employees. Figure out how deep you need to cut, regain confidence of employees and customers, look at overall company strategy , and turn the company around to profitability.

I have been working at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Pros - The campus and close to home. I can work from home (depending on the project) and I enjoy that flexibility. The people on my team are nice (not effective at all at what they do, but they're nice) Depending on the project, you can work with some really knowledgeable people and the opportunities to learn are great, if you can put up with the abuse that is heaped on by the engineering staff. I'm paid well, and that's really the reason I stay.

Cons – Very political - the favorites keep getting promoted. Very top-heavy - there are lots of managers who have one or two direct reports. Management is completely out of touch with what the individual contributors have to do to get their job done. It is not unusual to work 80 to 100 hours a week to be able to try to meet the unrealistic schedules that mangaements puts out. This used to be a great place to work but the energy is gone. No raises or bonuses for the little people, but the big guy gets a 4million dollar bonus. Yeah, that seems fair!

Advice to Senior Management – Try getting in touch with what's really happening here. The 5-minute Friday pep rallies aren't doing it. There are smart, hardworking people here who aren't being heard.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Flexibility to also work from home from time to time. There still is concern for the employee. Pay is still at least average.

Cons – Distributed workforce makes you have to mostly communicate over the phone, which is isolating. A lot of people work from home and are poorly managed, hence the trouble the company is having on being productive. Constant rounds of layoffs keeps moral extremely low.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit and get new management in that can truly operate the company instead of just come up with "vision" and "strategy"

I worked at Sun Microsystems

Pros – Work environment is great--get your own office and pretty much come and go as you please. Always able to work from home with little hassle. Lots of very smart people making cool products. Everyone is very nice.

Cons – Rudderless, directionless company. I was working on a project that was making money and supposedly was going to be a big staple of the business going forward when my job was cut. The distributed teams makes it hard to really build a cohesive project team. Management was generally too busy with technical issues and revamping project timelines to do much people managing. See "hit and run" management. I never thought my skills were properly utilized.

Advice to Senior Management – Leave the company! Time for new people with a fresh perspective. Sun still has a great name, but it's going to flounder until a really strong leader comes in with a vision for the future.

I have been working at Sun Microsystems

Pros – I enjoy the technical work and professional development. The facilities are first class at this site

Cons – Lack of appreciation of products and technologies that actually make money.
It is frustrating to work on teams which are conducted entirely via conference calls. Although helpful to some employees to work at home, teams are considerably less effective when loosly connected across the country.
There is an brain-dead reliance on outsourcing everything to the detriment of decent IT support, product development, product management.

Advice to Senior Management – Take more of a customer focus in sales and service.
Stop promoting the hype about how superior Sun is when it denies that fact that Sun is really struggling. The price the market is willing to pay for the stock - which is below book value - should be transparently dealt with and acknowledged by management.
You really need to change the leadership culture from one of loosly coupled departments to a better
marshalled work force.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend