ADTRAN Reviews

Pros

Great team to work with.

Cons

Not many opportunities to travel on work.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up good work.

Pros

Friendly people, good benefits and low turnover

Cons

Below average compensation and long hours in certain sectors of the company

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure new senior level manager don't shove their prior company cultures down on existing employees.

Also in your quest to become a larger company, don't forget your core competencies that helped get you there like employee retention rates.

Pros

The schedule is flexible and there is a lot of available vacation and sick leave. The benefit package is reasonable for the current market but not excellent. They recently put a fitness center in the corporate HQ office which is fantastic. The office facilities are excellent. Most of the people here are great.

Cons

There is not a clearly defined or articulated strategic direction coming from senior management to the company. It feels that we are living "quarter to quarter" in order to satisfy Wall Street instead of trying to meet quantifiable 1-, 3-, 5- and 10- year objectives. The compensation packages do not match work performed or equivalent positions in the market. Staff resources are not allocated adequately in any departments, requiring everyone to do at least double the normal or reasonable load and even pick up work that other groups should be handling. We are stretched thin and everyone is constantly working at a high pace and at a high anxiety level.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop and communicate a strategy and direction for the company. Invest in staff resources to support those objectives. Reward your staff with compensation, promotions, etc.

Pros

The general environment is very positive and the work is rewarding. The campus is beautiful, and the benefits are good.

Cons

There is no path for advancement and the salary is not competitive. Last year's raises were lousy despite stellar company performance.

Pros

conservative company, no layoffs in a long time

Cons

1) no career growth
2) not much professional development

Advice to Senior Management

invest in career development for employees

Pros

fantastic offices and equipment
knowledgeable tech staff

Cons

greedy management-- stock options no longer given to non-managers
poor raises in the midst of booming business
only hire new grads for the most part

Place has went downhill since Mark Smith died. Mark spread the wealth among his engineers. Current Sr leadership acts like they alone make Adtran successful.

Advice to Senior Management

Re-adopt Mark Smith management. Give ISO again. Give better raises. Hire people so that short-handed dept workers don't have to be at work more than at home.

Pros

Adtran is a conservative company that is steady. You are not in constant fear of losing your job. The work is challenging and fulfilling.

Cons

Adtran is very conservative on compensation. It's benefits are also pretty pricey compared to other companies I have friends working for.

Pros

Part of one big team. Feels good to be told over and over by industry analysts and customer of how great company, solutions are.

Cons

Company runs very lean, work too hard sometimes.

Pros

ADTRAN is a stable engineering-driven company, and it's staffed with professional, sane, reasonable people with normal interests and families and lives. If you live in the Huntsville area you can probably appreciate that. People are exceptionally helpful and friendly, and the facilities are beautiful. Everyone gets their own office with a view. The campus is large with many beautifully manicured acres and a large lake surrounded by the two towers. Even the cafeteria serves exceptional food at very fair prices.

The pay is average for the area--good for the South, not quite as rich as the defense contractors pay.

Cons

In order to attain promotions you must be driven and committed to excellence, meet deadlines, and at some level you are responsible for making yourself visible to your management. Not that being driven to excellence is a con at all, but ADTRAN is large enough that visibility can be an issue. The management doesn't focus too much on formalisms, and as such, the review process can be lacking. Feedback is hard to come by unless you interact regularly with peers and your management.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the review process seriously. Continue to invest in your engineers and technical staff through on-site educational opportunities. Give specific feedback regularly, and set some clearly defined goals. You might be surprised what people can do when they're sufficiently challenged.

Pros

ADTRAN has a nice campus and nice facilities

Cons

ADTRAN has changed for the worse over the last 5-7 years. Politics and finger pointing is becoming more rampant. Management has an extreme lack of focus. Moral is on the decline, with many long time employees exiting the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring back Mark Smith's management style and leadership.