Dolby Reviews

Pros

Fairly laid back environment. Some some are too laid back but there are allot of good people who know their jobs and work hard.

Cons

to many laid back people, lack of synergy within each area and you never know what the flavor will be this hour.

Advice to Senior Management

get a single building in the City not 3. Has anyone calculated the time/money figure on that?

Pros

Good life/work balance because of the 9/80 work week
Competitive salary
Located in SF
Passionate employees in some departments
Industry leader

Cons

Negative culture - people try to find blame
Poor cooperatoin - worried about C.Y.A.
Inconsistent bonus and raises
Rare promotions (seem to hire outside the company)
After working hard for almost 2 years on a painful ERP system, management rewarded the employees with a weak bonus.

Advice to Senior Management

Figure out how important employee retention is to the company. Right now, we are staying because of the economic environment, but when the conditions improve, there will be an increase in turnover. The bonuses were a slap in the face after working almost 2 years on a painful project, which is made worse because we can see how much profits the company brought in. Have a heart and think outside the company's revenue goals.

Management needs to lead, and stop trying to implement the latest concepts that another tech company is trying. Find a direction and identity for the company.

Pros

9/80 schedule
Adequate compensation
Flexible schedule
Intelligent coworkers

Cons

Lack of opportunities for promotion
Leadership out of touch with employee base
Serious lack of communication - and when there is communication, it's not realistic. Heavy PR spin on everything, not a simple honest message.

Pros

Get to work on cool technologies. Opportunities to challenge yourself year round. Got a lot of cool ideas, participate in the yearly IdeaQuest and see your idea becoming an actual product.

Cons

So so compensation package. Promotional opportunities differ greatly from group to group, it's a hit or miss. Slow career growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Please do a better job at promotion across groups to make sure it's fair all around and to prevent discouragement.

Pros

9/80 schedule was great
Most coworkers were great to work with
Loved the old engineering mentality, some still have it
Some geniuses still work there, great to be around those folks

Cons

Radical changes every time a new executive leader was chosen, (i.e. each of the 4 CIOs)
Heavy reliance on consultants
Favored consultant opinions over long-time employee opinions
Inability to make a decision

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with a little more respect, they're more than just an expendable resource. Talk honestly about what is going on, don't give a PR spin to make everything look like roses when it's obviously not.

Pros

Every other Friday off
Competent, friendly, team-based atmosphere
Dynamic work environment; never a dull moment
Good opportunities for advancement (varies by departement, though)

Cons

The main issue is that Dolby is going through a transformation from a family-owned company that relied on inclusion in industry standards (and audio-only) to a more mature global company with global processes, policy definition/enforcement, beyond-audio technologies, and tough decisions (including headcount decisions). It has been and will continue to be a tough transition for those that don't adapt well to the change or whose roles are impacted by this transition. Pay is a little lower than it should be.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to improve their focus on their people by increasing salaries and adding more bodies to help the organization take on the rapid change they are undergoing. They have gotten away with not taking these actions only because the labor market isn't pulling their talent away too strongly, but as soon as the economy gets better legs and hiring picks up, Dolby will be in a bad spot if they haven't already ensured those employees are strongly motivated to stay put.
Oh, and seriously increase internal communications from the upper management teams.

Pros

Dolby hires talented people, exciting entertainment industry projects, Off Friday (every other week), fair compensation package, professional development and growth opportunities improved since 2010

Cons

Slow decision making across the company - often by committee, constrained resources are pushed to threshold given the volume of projects the company is taking on.

Advice to Senior Management

Establish metrics which to track success on the key objectives, track progress and course correct, but do not try to do everything for every market.

Pros

Lots of smart people, great benefits (every other Friday off!), interesting work and the industry is in a time of transition that really make sit it interesting!

Cons

Executive team disconnected - especially on the marketing side. Dolby is having to prove itself in the market now as "standards" contracts are being challenged by DTS and SRS. Its a new game and Dolby's executive marketing is behind the times....

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in the company! its a new day! We can do it!

Pros

9/80 and great history to look back on.

Cons

Lack of vision, executive leadership, inability to execute.

Pros

9/80 Work Schedule
Smart Fun People
Exciting Industry

Cons

Location
Poor Marketing
Decisions made by consensus only
Lack of clear direction in product development
Under utilization of exceptional talent

Advice to Senior Management

Commit to products / market opportunities earlier and do what it takes to OWN the markets we're in (like we used to)!