Pros

Decent Salary, Chance to work with some smart people, Opportunities to grow

Cons

1. Cut-throat Senior Management
2. Very Aggressive Schedules

Advice to Senior Management

Set High Expectations, Deliver more than what you promise, Dont make assumptions about how your employees feel(constantly try to get their pulse) and make working for the company fun!!

Pros

Blue Coat has a reasonably good and advanced product line, making it attractive to certain types of Information Technology buyers and decision-makers. Blue Coat's Security product line is unmatched for its purpose. WAN Optimization and Visibility product lines are competent and worthy competitors. The Systems Engineers are talented.

Cons

Engineering execution could be better, and this is a reflection of engineering management, not the core engineering talent. Self-congratulation pertaining to the India Engineering Outsourcing project is Pollyannaism at its worst (for laid-off employees) and scariest (for shareholders). The company is plagued by poor communication and poorer information dissemination resulting from dual, dueling intranets.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to succeed in WAN Optimization then focus on it and do what's needed in the sales force and the channel to make it happen -- it's not about product, it's entirely about go-to-market.

Don't have too much faith in your experiment in India.

Pros

CEO is generous
good products
talented engineers

Cons

ineffective middle management layers (too many cooks make the soup sour)
losing valuable engineers because they are not friends with the key players

Advice to Senior Management

Brian,if you really want to find out what's going on on each level , hire someone you trust at lower level as undercover. They will give you most accurate stats. The middle management has to do whatever it takes to make themselves look valuable to the company. Don't be afraid to compare the methodology to other companies and learn from them. Bluecoat will be successful if it execute it right. Work smarter, not harder.

Pros

Location in Silicon Valley - Sunnyvale with easy access to 85 and 101. Salaries are good.

Cons

Strategy , plans, and organization are constantly changing with no solid sense or reasoning behind decisions. It seems they just like change for the sake of change...or to hide accountability and competence issues. Another huge problem is their lack of 'trust' on their employees' capabilities to execute. Tons of micromanaging and spying on each other going on at all levels. Everybody is trying to do everybody's job. The worse offenders are some of the Senior Executives. They can't keep their hands off the details of day-to-day operations.

Advice to Senior Management

Leave the company......you are the biggest roadblock to progress and success. You have a culture of distrust and chaos.

Pros

Smart people at the lower levels, lots of challenges available. Solid product line.

Cons

Senior Management doesn't seem to be able to execute a consistent strategy. Decision-making capabilities are weak and always have to flow from the top, resulting in long periods of time needed to make relatively simple decisions. Extreme micro-management. Very top-heavy with senior leadership (Director and up), lots of whom are very new, limiting career advancement opportunities for people who have been there for a while. Poor communication about corporate vision and goals.

Advice to Senior Management

Pick a strategy and commit to it for a 12-18 mo period. Drive decision making capabilities down to lower levels and trust your managers to do the right thing. Commit to developing internal talent to promote. You have some really smart and talented people who can take your company a long way, trust them to do it.

Pros

Overall good talent. Challenging technology and products. Ability to feel like I make a difference sometimes.

Cons

I used to think management was reasonably competent but offshoring to India is a giant clue they never knew what they were doing all along. Lack of single sign-on makes ordinary things like checking benefits a chore. More and more I get the feeling that nobody really knows what's going on; company seems to hold details close to the vest. There has been no roadmap for a year or so.

Advice to Senior Management

In a word, quit. You've failed and you need to get out of the way.

Pros

Blue Coat has been very generous as a company toward employees. It is also eco-minded (and not just lip service either...very visible actions taken). There are many opportunities to grow professionally (ongoing training and cross-training is encouraged) and to learn and create innovative and cutting-edge technologies.

Cons

Recent lay-offs involved losing some of the brightest talent at Blue Coat, which may have been short-sighted. Also, many of the long-term goals seem to shift more than would be expected.

Advice to Senior Management

I recommend taking time to truly see who is working for you when determining any future restructuring. Please continue to treat your employees as well as you have been on the whole. Also try not to lose that "small company" feel that is part of the appeal of Blue Coat.

Pros

Solving the technical challenges related to improving performance and stability, as well as an interesting product space makes Blue Coat a rewarding place to work. There's good knowledge transfer between employees, and a good sense of team.

Cons

Our goals can be somewhat of a moving target. The focus/priorities this month can be significantly different next month, so it's hard to nail down exactly WHAT is the most important feature/goal to focus on.

Advice to Senior Management

While the product space shifts and adapts, instead of playing "follow the crowd", it may be a worthwhile strategy to stake ourselves as the leader that the OTHER players need to follow. This would permit a more focused effort from employees.

Pros

1. Great Pay, Good Benefits
2. Opportunities to grow( feels like a start-up)
3. Ability to have an impact directly in the products

Cons

Not everyone is communicative. IT is a mess but is slowly showing signs of improvement.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Pros

Great technology, great pay, dynamic culture, strong leadership

Cons

Back office systems can be a pain at times...Support has had its challenges but they are getting better. Corporate strategy can appear to be a moving target at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue pushing to evolve Blue Coat into a 1B dollar company by bringing in great talent and defined processes. Continue to shore up and execute on the vision.