Citrix Systems|Citrix Reviews in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL Area

Pros

Work environment flexibility. Work/life balance.

Cons

lack of direction at all levels, defined objectives

Advice to Senior Management

there's a lot of "fat" at Citrix. Operations could be leaner. Directors create headcount without job analysis or justifications to sooner or later lay off employees. Seems that the hiring process is more tactical than strategic.

Pros

citrix has been an industry leader for over 2 decades and now facing for the first time some real competition has awaken the fighting spirit within the company leading us to great advancements in the virtualization field.

Cons

some middle-management politics can be found, but rarely.

Advice to Senior Management

stream line and align teams that are working on cutting edge solutions. emphasize the extremely well created products and focus less in meaningless marketing campaigns.

Pros

Great benefits, some really talented and competent coworkers. The promise that Citrix will someday live up to the reputation it aspires to.

Cons

An Upper management and executive team who are completely out of touch with how they and middle management are perceived by the rank and file.
There are no standardized expectations for the employees so it is very hard to know if what you are doing every day really aligns with your department or corporate goals.

As a very long time employee I can safely say morale is at an all time low.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the focus from appearing to care about employee and customer satisfaction to actually taking the time to find out why they are not satisfied and doing something about it.
 Yes, this is a business with shareholders and a board of directors to answer to but when "layoffs" are used by certain directors as an excuse to clean house based on a personal vendetta it changes the whole dynamics for the workplace.
This being a software company means that most of the technical staff, from engineering to support, are not equipped to play political strategy games with their livelihoods.

Pros

Cool technology
Great market
Good aquisitions
Great CEO from vision standpoint
Remote working capability
Large customer base
Excellent partner program

Cons

With everything said above. Citrix has one major issue which affects every other area of the company. Almost their entire middle management minus the CEO have come from an aquisition 9 years ago. They are a clique that all other employees are excluded from and only promote from within. This is a virus that permeates the whole organization. They are completly unqualified for the positions they are in. This is not a rant, just a fact. I did not work for one of these managers, just an observer.

Advice to Senior Management

CEO is the best visionary CEO in technology and his ratings show it. But, he is also responsible for the operations side and does not seem to be managing what is going on throughout his management structure.

Pros

Nice office, perks and people.

Cons

Poor managers, many of whom are not qualified for their position.

Advice to Senior Management

Look past the lip service to see who is actually working hard for you.

Pros

The opportunity to work with innovative products, but more importantly some really smart people.
The benefits are top notch compared to other companies.

Cons

Lack of communication during difficult times. A strong "good ol' boy network".
Relationships and politics drive the budgetary spending, company direction, and who fills the few open positions, rather than hard work and loyalty.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a good, hard look into your organizations. Many of the director-level and above players are only out for their personal gain. Motivate your teams to get through these difficult times.

Pros

Ability to take your transferable skills and use them in different positions. The people are what make the company.

Cons

Too much internal politics for a company that is on the brink of major growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at mediocre performers in middle management. Take a look at the morale in departments. Don't lose the fire that help build the company.

Pros

Citrix has a very good overall vision and an amazing marketing approach. This and their flagship product is what has kept them profitable. They are able to understand the market, the hot products/messages to deliver even before most companies. Citrix used to be a fun place to work but not any more.

Cons

There is a huge gap between the Executive Leadership Team and the management teams below them. This includes direction, communication, etc. Citrix used to be a small company but is not able to grow and scale to a corporate environment. They are still stuck in the startup mentality but are a software/hardware company that employs over 4000 people. They are not able to understand what it really takes to get to the next level and they do not invest in the acquistions they have made. Good examples are the acquistions of XenSource and Orbital Data (WANScaler). The same engineering team is expected to do more with less. Engineering best practices are still not in place as every engineering team still does their own thing. Only thing that matters any more is the stock price and shareholder perception. Everything seems to be done with a very short sighted approach without seeing the consequences in the long term.

Citrix is very much a boys club, if you're not in, you will go nowhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management is very sheltered from what is going on. The communication from the ELT never makes it to the file and rank.

The last layoff was handled very badly, and Sr. Mgt had code named it "Project Respect". There wasn't anything respectful about how it was handled.

Pros

The salary was really good for an internship and it's a well known name in the iT world. It's located in a fun location and Citrix seems to really pump money back into their employees. Over my summer their we had 4 free meals at nice restraunts, and we made trips to the beach. Overall, I was pretty happy with Citrix.

Cons

The department I interned in was consulting, however I had a position making C# web applications. There weren't many people to ask questions to if you were having trouble, because almost everyone around you is either speaking spanish, or has a business degree. Google and IRC will have to be your source of technincal information.

Advice to Senior Management

Give more details to interns after assigned them a project.

Pros

Young and growing company and sending out the right marketing messages. There is a lot of potential for the Virtualization market. The suite of products is created a lot of synergies that is a compelling sell to customer from end to end IT infrastructure perpective

Cons

There is no formal feedback process for bosses. A lot focus have been placed the front end on revenue, revenue and revenue. Should also invest more in product development to produce quality and reliable products that provide the best customer satisfaction.

Advice to Senior Management

Might have placed a lot of attention in growing the market and just focusing a lot of the features. Listen more to people on the ground. Simplified the product synergy and ensure good quality product that is based on performance and reliability. Also need concentrate on customer satisfaction and build a reputation on solid and dependable solution.