Cray Reviews

Pros

St Paul facility is nice and parking is free (but sort of a pain.) Benefits are better than most. Innovation and technical expertise are valued.

Cons

The culture isn't very friendly or fun - little or no time for socializing and getting to know fellow employees (the divided up facility probably made this worse.) Recognition is inconsistent across divisions. Performance planning and feedback is hampered by painful tools. There is a lot of work to do and not enough time to do it right.

Advice to Senior Management

Lighten up! Put more focus on happy employees and less on the bottom line. Positive employees will ensure a positive bottom line much more efficiently.

Pros

Cutting edge hardware technology. Pride in working on the most powerful computers on Earth. The ability to make a difference in a small to medium size company. Bonuses for the last few years. Very American company.

Cons

Software engineering leadership is poor. Much of the software work is just integration. Projects are seriously (and continually) under resourced. Retirement benefits are way below industry standard.

Advice to Senior Management

We waste too much time on filling out time tracking, time cards, and status reports. It is inexcusable that there isn't an integrated solution for this instead of 3 separate interfaces.

Pros

Some of the best, high-tech HPC technology helping with great scientific applications
Working alongside very smart people
I like our customers, which I couldn't say for every job I've had
Flexible but driven environment

Cons

Morale has taken a hit to some degree. Management is fixated on bonuses while I am more interested in having the ability to increase base pay. Reviews don't seem to be reciprocal--at best they merely exist as a multiplier for your bonus payout, not for salary.

Within certain orgs, Cray has meandering management coupled with an orientation to business reengineering that will not fix things. Let me repeat that: expensive consultants and the development of tools will not fix human problems less endemic in employees than in management.

I can think of a few times where decisions are made in one part of the company that affect those in another. Yet these decisions are communicated late or last minute. This is something to be aware of and fix. It seems like on the sales customer interface side (e.g. sales, marketing, and lower-mid executive management) they seem less inclined to include engineering in the loop on decisions, which can have consequences.

Advice to Senior Management

I want to be clear that what I listed in "Cons" are problems I can work with. Cray has the potential to be a great company. My main issue is in terms of compensation (in the midst of profitability) and the reorgs and time accounting nonsense (contract accounting aside). Others have complained that this is a waste of time. I have a different complaint: it's demeaning and treats employees like children. It doesn't focus on results but on how much time you spend doing a certain task. I also have to say: are management's goals reasonable when they change their minds so often?

Pros

Lots of great communicaton between groups if you need a problem solved. Great location in the Pacific NW. Strong emphasis on customer satisfaction.

Cons

Being reorg'd from a great job to the mental equivalent of assembly line work did not make me happy.
This also resulted in all my management chain and colleagues being in another state, making it quite clear what my chances for advancement were. Having an education reimbursement plan listed as a perk is useless if no one ever gets to benefit from it.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to stop pissing off the engineers. Management needs to stop making stupid decisions about hardware in order to increase the depth and breadth of sales. If you're going to encourage people to try to go to the next level, give them a clear path forward to do that. Don't just say "We'd really like to promote you", but don't tell them what the metrics are and don't give them any kind of mentoring support to make that happen. I might still be there if there hadn't been a dismissive attitude about what I felt my weakness were, what could be done to correct them, and what my future was with the company. I'm not the kind of person who likes to be doing the same mind-numbing job 20 years later.

Pros

Pretty good benefits, important work

Cons

Red tape, micromanagement, no increase in salary, pay not competitive

Advice to Senior Management

EARS are the worst thing about this job.

Pros

Really smart people to work with. Great office in st. paul. Bleeding edge technology in the HPC market. Folks are nice.

Cons

Prospects for job security are low. This is because the company is largely dependent upon government spending which fluctuates year to year.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue doing what you're doing. Get away from complex build systems. More jibberish is likely to be coming in the future.

Pros

Cray was a really fun company to work for. Within the first two weeks the CEO actually sat and talked with the new hires. It's in a great location, with great people and the projects you get to work on are a lot of fun.

Cons

The pay not be as much as other companies in the tech world, but they really make up for it with the work environment they provide

Advice to Senior Management

The manager I had was awesome, he really took time out to make sure everyone understood what was going on as well as working with everyone to accomplish our goals.

Pros

Solid direction from the top. CEO is approachable, unassuming, and well versed in the business. Cray has built the fastest open science supercomputer on the planet.

Cons

Legal has to review and approve everything, often acting as a brake on progress and sales. Too many approval steps are required from people only tangentially involved in an issue.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline the the business processes!