Check Point Software Reviews

Pros

Good place to get one's feet wet as compensation is below industry average so entry level managers can find a footing here.
Exposure to many areas of company an asset
Solid mature company - while headcount is kept lean, also not a company that lays off people on a whim

Cons

Culture difference between Israeli office and US office can be a challenge

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to your middle managers

Pros

- Financially stable
- Market Co-Leader
- New technology each year
- No layoffs that I'm aware of in several years
- All the non-mgmt employees I've met are actually smart, dedicated folks who are trying to do the right thing.

Cons

- Culture differences between Isreali HQ and North American business practices
- All decisions go through the top three folks
- Rarely market the company well
- Very poor attention to customer service. This is a mgmt/structure problem, not an individual contributor problem. It is a constant struggle to achieve a satisfactory level of customer service.
- The product line has grown beyond its original foundation, and the level of quality is showing.
- The complexity of the licensing model is a source of eternal heartburn for both sales teams and customers.

Advice to Senior Management

I'd advise the leadership to focus on simplicity, quality, and the customer experience (as opposed to quick, cheap, and rough). Simplify every process from purchasing to managing products and licensing. Operate one main train of code and one "beta/testing" train. Ensure all releases actually include all hotfixes from the prior versions before shipping. Employ massive amounts of resources to QA. Make 6-month release schedules instead of releasing at arbitrary points. Make the roadmap to those releases clear and stick to them.

Finally, focus on making the technical support center the pride of the organization. Compensate those workers fairly, and provide an environment that allows them to succeed. When the TAC succeeds, the rest of the company succeeds. When they are understaffed, everyone else is affected (especially the customer).

Since CHKP doesn't do much marketing, focus on making your products and customer experience the best, and the selling will sort itself out pretty quickly.

Pros

Good benefits
Co-Workers are awesome
Free Lunch

Cons

Abusive and dishonest Management
Everything is a lateral move
If you point out something that can be done better, even when asked, suddenly YOU are the problem
Lack of hiring when head count gets low
No understanding of family needs
Schedule changes with little or no notice
Must be willing to quit to talk about a pay raise
If you turn down another job in the company, they can still force you to take it
Going to HR about an issue with management is risky at best

Advice to Senior Management

Quit lying and abusing your people because you made a mistake. Don't ignore obvious issues with your people being burnt out or overloaded. When someone comes to you saying they need help don't look at them without understanding and say "Everyone else seems to be doing fine, why can't you handle it". That is because everyone is scared if they speak up you'll abuse them until they quit. If you would stop and listen to them maybe you would get something done.

Pros

Leading firewall products and growing some.

Cons

Horrible management. No communication, arrogant to North American Sales VP who is clueless and shows no interest in changing. Managers and company in North America shows little ability to deal with corporate in Israel. But most of all, have a attitude that customer will always buy from them no mater if support is poor, or customer problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Think, listen and communicate honestly.

Pros

This company is in a good sector. You will be positioned well once you leave Check Point. The CEO is forward thinking and you will learn a lot.

Cons

Very political. There can be issues between overseas management and management that resides in the United States. Efforts to look good to remote managment seems to negatively impact behaviors between the different departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Check in more frequently with United States employees to see if systems that are put in place are working. Have anonymous feedback systems in place so that people can tell you how things are REALLY going.

Pros

company values training and education, opportunity to travel globally, incredibly smart people and rich culture at Israel HQs

Cons

culture at Redwood City HQs somewhat dead

Pros

Free lunch
Easy place to work if your lazy or looking for a place to go and retire.
Free Check Point certifications

Cons

Very low pay
ALL decisions made in Israel.
Middle mgmt is lazy, scared, complacent and just there drawing a check.
Upper Mgmt hates marketing and sales teams especially in the US
US employees are treated as if they are 2nd rate employees.
They think the world revolves around Israel
Very CHEAP., and I do mean cheap on everything.

Advice to Senior Management

CEO needs to step down/retire and turn the company over to a business process oriented leader. The world does not revolve around Israel except if you work at Check Point.

Pros

Employees at Check Point are, almost without exception below the VP level, truly committed to doing their best. They also bend over backwards to maintain a positive can-do attitude and support each other.

Cons

Israelis are the first to point out that Check Point is not a typical Israeli company. Israelis are direct and their companies are usually chaotic, a bit disorganized and very fast paced. But Check Point adds to this a peculiar mix of sociopathy, indecision, condescension, micromanagement and explosive temper that characterizes, almost without exception, the company's entire management from VPs on up to the president and CEO who drive this dysfunctional culture. My manager has an adversarial relationship with their team and believes that nothing will get done correctly unless they micromanage everything and telescope the anger of their boss to the entire team. I have seen people driven to tears in meetings and even a a heart attack in one instance. There is also a strong paranoia that runs through the company resulting in labyrinthine and humiliating procedures that cause every minor decision to roll up to Amnon and Gil. Working here becomes wearisome quickly, even if you have saintlike patience and a thick skin--or even if you are Israeli.

Advice to Senior Management

Gil, You need to change the toxicity of the company culture and quickly if you ever hope to retain and recruit the best talent--the latter is almost impossible in the US and the cause of so many vacancies, high turnover and lack of innovation. The longtime success and health of the company is dependent on it and investors will get wise sooner or later.

Pros

Like the government: steady, safe, reliable employment.
Free Lunch
Weekends are truly off--and Fridays are quiet due to Israel being out. you do always pay for it by feeling behind on Monday. I think the Israelis think we don't actually work 5 whole days.
you can get paid fairly--but you must negotiate heavily for it. I had to walk away from the job offer 3 times before getting what I wanted.
I had an incredible manager there, but that person is now gone. If you are shielded from all the difficulties with Israel it can be a safe steady mostly 9-5 job.

Cons

This is not a marketing driven company by any stretch. Every quarter you will spend half your time justifying your entire existence to Gil personally, who won't bother to actually hear your entire power point presentation through before cutting you off at the middle of slide 1 to harangue you about his theories of marketing. Since you can't spend more than $25k on ANY ONE PO, you are essentially justifying every spend you make to every single banner ad purchase. It's also tremendously convoluted, the purchasing organization is set up like the Soviet government, with instructions to obfuscate and reject purchase orders because they don't like the way the justification is worded. I have an MBA from a top program and more than a decade of experience in my field, and justifying my marketing strategy to a low level clerk (who would then explain it to Gil's cousin, who would then explain it to him and screw it up in the process causing it to be rejected), just grew too exhausting to put up with.

Advice to Senior Management

Gil, Israelis may make the world's best consumer security products, but you don't know jack about marketing, especially in the consumer space. You need to learn to manage risk and to listen to the people you hire. You support a culture of incivility that ensures you will only have the weakest teams long term who lack motivation to truly excel. Maybe this works in Israel but it doesn't work in Silicon Valley. Maybe what you do in marketing works in the enterprise space but in consumer you have much to learn...well there's a reason Symantec and AVG ate your lunch, as well as all your other meals in this area.

Pros

free lunch, good stable company.

Cons

low compensation, management inexperience and don't care what you think. Will only used you and overworked you. you will be scorned at and be humiliated in front of ppl if you don't listen or make mistake. No structure whats so ever. Extreme micromanage. Do not work here!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Should have better hierarchy. and let employee do their work and learn to treat employees with some respect and dignity, and not used them for only getting sales etc.