Alcatel-Lucent Reviews in New York City, NY Area

Pros

1. great place to balance between work and life.
2. great place to learn new technologies.
3. great place for research,

Cons

1. low salary
2. very very difficult to promote
3. its a French company / not a US company
4. low bonus

Pros

Relaxed hours. Lots of vacation time.

Cons

Little room for mobility due to significant cost pressure the company is facing. Low morale.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe the management team is doing a good job in trying to turn things around. Additionally, they confront many of the issues honestly which is refreshing.

Pros

great people, very smart and looking for motivation

Cons

lack of investment in the future

Advice to Senior Management

hire a new CEO

Pros

interesting technologies, opportunities to move around to different groups

Cons

large company, lots of org changes

Pros

good people are still around the company.

Cons

depressing to work in this type of environment.

Advice to Senior Management

If you are looking for stability this may be for you.

Pros

In many parts there are challenging technologies to work in and there are many good and talented people at the lower levels who have not drank the Kool-Aid yet.

Cons

Too top heavy in management; unfair compensation practices. Unfair compensation to the employees who have been there the longest. A new hire in off the street will make more than a proven person with many years of service and management just says tough.

Advice to Senior Management

A little more concern towards the employees. The upper management has bought into the greed is good mentality and do not care about the employees, only "shareholders" matter. They will outsource in a second for a few extra bucks. Management needs to get rid of the be grateful you have a job mentality.

Pros

- global company
- diverse culture
- turnaround story

Cons

- power base in France
- less efficient business cultures to navigate
- strong degree of politics, more than elsewhere
- many work 12+ hours a day
- tough industry

Advice to Senior Management

- take HC reduction equally around the world (don't just reduce HC where it's easiest)
- make people a stronger priority everyday, not just one or two days a year
- make the tought decisions (see HC reduction comment)

Pros

a lot of education program

Cons

no salary increase for past 3 years

Advice to Senior Management

need to have better organization structure. Too many overlap

Pros

Good opportunities for Training, some local mgmt supports flexible work time,
offices are decent sized and pleasant, most coworkers are usually nice.

Cons

Difficulty in delivering new products beyond traditional telcom hw. In battle with low cost govt supported Chinese competitors, obvious short term way to survuve is to emulate competition cost structure, not good for emp at high cost locations (Europe and USA/Canada), but good for India and China.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider using the power of Bell Labs and your development orgs to develop new innovative products that branch beyond traditional telco products and services.

Pros

Global company so lots of opportunity to work with others from different countries and of different cultures. Potential to travel and see other places.

Cons

Overall culture of "If you are from former Alcatel you have it made, if you are from former Lucent you are done." If you are not in France, you don't matter. Professional development, promotions etc. are all nonexistent and if they happen, the process is totally opposite of transparent. Decisions where $100M+ each year is on the line are made without much information and on the spot. When the $100M+ becomes an unnecessary expense, nobody is held accountable. Decisions about $50 are taking forever and should you do something "inappropriate" with the $50 you are gone.

Advice to Senior Management

Hold people accountable. Base decisions on facts. Merit and results should be the ultimate measure of everything, not the fact that I am from former Alcatel so I must be a genius and if I am from former Lucent then I must be a moron.