Dell Reviews in Austin, TX Area

Pros

I laughed when I saw another review here saying 'if you can survive Dell you can survive anywhere!' That's absolutely true! Some good folks on the ground here. You'll find inner strengths in yourself which will help your career.

Cons

If you've no family interests, want to come here for a year for the money and the name on your CV I would. Other than that I highly discourage anyone from Dell. There's a disturbing breed here I've never come across in my years of management - hard people who have forgone a work life balance or family, especially women. I work 14 hours 7 days which is not unusual, and I have great empathy for the worker bees internationally, unaware of the type of company this really is. Work related stress and constructive dismissal are rife. Dell offers little help for staff and unless you're well connected in Austin, help is never going to happen.
I'm leaving of my own decision to lead another brand at a high level, but have learnt in surviving Dell Hell. I've heard many people say you breathe an awesome sigh of relief the last time you walk out the door, I can't wait!

Advice to Senior Management

A wise man once said do unto others as you would want done onto yourself

Pros

Pay is good if you are willing to put in the hours.

Cons

incompetent management, unclear organizational goals as they are always changing.

Advice to Senior Management

too many chiefs and not enough indians, please provide some leadership for petes sake!

Pros

There is a great work/life balance

Cons

unjust performance reviews is causing a lot of employees to leave.

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the lousy vision for a great company and you will lose all great talent to HP and be considered a mediocre company in the next 5 years.

Pros

Good people, good management, happy place to work.

Cons

Very difficult to move up within current role, transfers to other departments are a must to move up.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer a plan to grow within current role.

Pros

Fair and ethical, performance oriented

Cons

a bit of a click, tend to look down on outsiders.

Advice to Senior Management

Wish they were more open about layoffs and freezes.

Pros

Dell employee discounts on computers. Bonus plan is good. Most people are good to work with. Good benefits for employees.

Cons

Management is chaotic and constantly starting fire drills. Management is out of touch with employees. Engaement with management is very disconnected.

Advice to Senior Management

Understand the business, and get closer to the customer. Treat all employees equally. Try and give more life balance allowances.

Pros

Great opportunities to learn early in career. Get broad scope of responsibility. Smart people.

Cons

Long hours and high churn. Lack of strategic direction. Frequent org changes. Too matrixed.

Pros

Work-Life Balance.
Few Good leaders to work with who eventually leave.
Good place to work for a couple of years (don't get too comfortable - read who moved my cheese?).
Business partners are excellent folks - Dell is only in existence because of them.
Experienced and seasoned Individual Contributors are fantastic people to work with both in IT and Business.

Cons

Applies to IT and Online IT (What is the difference? Ask around):
Too many organizational re-alignments resulting in multiple managers in short time - 13 mgrs in 4 years in case of one person that I knew who was eventually pushed out as he did not fit into the herd.
Tendency of a few in mid-management to create new teams of 8-9 employees (BAIN Study) to survive (to avoid offshoring and cost cutting) rather than focus on being creative and grow.
Tendency to re-invent the wheel over and over again to survive by pushing out experienced people from non-siloed environment. When projects miss timeline, excuse given is loss of experienced knowledge due to attrition, processes, environmental process assets.
Biased view towards departments - IT has been off shored and existing employees are on remote process while Online IT (?) is considered a golden egg which tries to facilitate, show they are responsible for the business profit instead of the real Sales Folks in Large, Public, Small and medium and Consumer division.
Tendency in some teams to avoid managing by hiring H1 skilled labor and exploit them as they are desperate to get their green cards. Project Managers, Software Developers, Business Systems Analysts exists on H1 while there is 9% official unemployment in the country.

Advice to Senior Management

Paying a Salary is not enough. Once a year, scrutinize each an every division of yours for people strategy being applied. Use Business Intelligence for people strategy and not just profits (stock is hovered around $15 and people are being rattled around like cattle herds). Keep existing people motivated forever and perform Enterprise Analysis before every project for 6 months and then apply Agile or Waterfall processes in IT . Instill a culture of Enterprise analysis and Requirements analysis before every strategic project.Just don't accept what mid management says. Mid management is mainly individual technical contributors turned managers. Top Management must review and approve including Michael Dell, if needed.

Pros

Excellent place to work, comparable salary with bonus flexible timing

Cons

limited opportunities to work from home, growth is limited

Pros

The Professionalism level was very high, The benefits were great.

Cons

This is too much bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep employees more informed on corporate strategy