Akamai Reviews

Pros

Technological acumen of the company is top notch. Engineering challenges and experience gained are up there with the top of the pack. Some of the engineers are the best in the business and are scary smart. You will be challenged as an engineer and this is a good thing. Very low employee turnaround indicates the Akamai is a very good company to work for.

Senior management has trust of the employers to "do the right thing" and are well respected. The feeling within Akamai is that the sky is the limit and the potential of the company is very high.

Cons

Getting up to speed as an engineer takes a very long time as the institutional knowledge held by longtime employees is not well documented. This is further compounded because Akamai's technologies are highly specific and thus highly customized. Having the feeling of being productive can take a long time.

The fear of "taking down the internet" makes release cycles very long. This is a valid concern but it permeates every business group and this slows down everything.

The company has a hard time sorting through all the potential ideas and prioritizing them. Too many good ideas.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall you are doing a very good job. I would focus on simplifying on the engineering on boarding process with a strong focus on training and better documentation. You also need to simplify and speed up the process involved between idea creation and a deployed system by removing barriers in the process.

Pros

Exposure to many types of leading edge technologies
Place to learn all about the internet

Cons

Very demanding
Too much politics at times

Pros

if you want to be on top of the IT , akamai is the place to be. You will never have enough time to catch up with everything going on here because the technology advances so quickly

Cons

our brand value is very low compared to what we do.
Mainly due to the invisibility to end-users.

people do not recognize our logo or what we do.

Advice to Senior Management

this strongly depends on who your boss is, with any company.
it is not just 1person but overall it is a safe place to be in terms of the current economy

Pros

Good work/life balance, good benefits, people are friendly for the most part.

Cons

The company is full of potential - that's the blessing and the curse. You end up staying longer than you should because the vision of where the company CAN go is so compelling. Unfortunately, Akamai is run far too conservatively and focuses much too much on quarterly performance. It needs innovation but fosters a safe, risk-averse approach that is doing it more harm than good at this point. Half of the management director level and above probably needs to be shown the door. Morale is pretty low, many people coast at this job ... look how many people in the New York office are looking at Facebook or altogether not there over the summer months.

Advice to Senior Management

In order to innovate you can't have the same senior management running things. Anyone involved in running product or engineering over the last few years - those tasked with MAKING things - should be shown the door.

Pros

good office, pick up and drop, ergonomic workplace, smiling security guys, so called fundoo technology

Cons

Now this is the best part. the hiring is ridiculous. One end hardcore developers are hired here as on the other end , pure BPO cutomer /tech support agents are hired for this job which makes it very frustrating. On top of that the salaries of them are on par or more in most of the case . This job basically requires no programmer background but is projected such.. some of the team leads/ managers are very low qualified and come mainly from BPO's. The leads dont do the job they are supposed to. It is extremely stressful and is same as a high pressure call center job typical in india.
The finance department is one of the most laziest and ineffective ones i have ever seen. They fail to realize that they are also in a job. Hopeless, callous and lazy to say the least.
To summarize , the SA role is analogous to a waiter's in a multicuisine restaurant , with your orders coming from USA and the attitude of managers in india being to service them at any cost, whatever they be. typical slave attitude. Please avoid this solution architect job at any cost. Fresher's beware, their life is ruined atleast in the Indian scenario. With a degree in Computer
science, they are just reduced to customer service agents.(by providing them flashy laptops, cubicles and mugged up technology)

Advice to Senior Management

Please have a check on the hiring especially in India. Any developer joining in professional services wont probably last the probation period. too much politics and the NA working hours are ridiculously pathetic and more stressful than the regular hours (as seen).
The night shift allowance is just not worth it. Please do not spoil the future of freshers in the name of pre sales and professional services.

Pros

The San Mateo Engineering center is working on the cutting edge technology. A great place to be there.

Cons

New talent is not as good as the old ones.

Pros

Akamai is working hard to change its game and sharpen its focus. The company has a good foundation with its technology.

Cons

Growing pains. Lot of people have been here a long time and they're in the positions of power. Company is not very disciplined in regards to planning and execution. Without normal turnover over the years, the company has been slow to evolve. Discomfort among middle managers with change is limiting company's ability to grow and change.

Advice to Senior Management

Encouraging turnover in mid- to high-level management and some of the executive team will likely accelerate positive changes.

Pros

1. Employees are empowered to act and interact freely across the company and at all levels to get the job done;
2. Akamai employees represent a company that has a proprietary, world-class product that is in high demand;
3. Employees are genuinely excited about Akamai's technology;
4. The company is fiscally conservative but invests in good benefits, equipment and training;
5. The culture welcomes unique ideas, innovation and opinions and places greater value on these than position or title.

Cons

If you are someone who thrives in a well-structured, unambiguous and procedures-based environment, you might feel a bit frustrated here.

Advice to Senior Management

Generally senior management is doing a good job of balancing the needs and demands of customers, employees, partners and investors while continuing to grow revenues in a rough economy.

Pros

Good people, good products, good services makes it a great place to work, learn and share with the best and brightest folks at Akamai

Cons

tough place to survive, only for the bright and one who can constantly evolve. If you are seeking a calm role, this is not the place. Join if you seek a thrilling fast paced environment

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership at Akamai is carefully selected. Also focus is there to grow talented folks in the next level of leaders. I would urge to keep this focus and not lose this great ability

Pros

Great facilities
Great crowd
Amazing technology
Awesome work culture
Great brand name

Cons

Aggressive hiring has caused talent dilution
HR is not doing a good job in hiring quality people

Advice to Senior Management

Understand that Cambridge is not really entire Akamai!
Hiring more people is not equal to more revenue to company