EMC Reviews in Boston, MA Area

Pros

Smart acquisition strategy, company is sitting on a pile of cash, benefits are decent, new WorkWise telecommuting program is a big plus, if you're lucky enough to work for a middle manager who actually trusts his or her people.

Cons

Upward mobility is a joke and what little there is is based on politics, not merit. Management in the Marketing organization promotes a culture of fear. Keep your mouth shut, don't makes waves, and you might survive the next knee-jerk headcount purge. EMC is stunningly top heavy with middle management and VPs. Individual contributors are disposable commodities and they know it. The non-managers who stay on do so because in Massachusetts, they have no place else to go.

Advice to Senior Management

No point...they've made it clear they don't care what rank and file thinks.

Pros

Ability to work from home.

Cons

Be prepared to work 50 - 70 hours a week. Pay could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to focus working closely during the day to day with employees rather than working 24/7 with Directors and only focusing 10% of their time managing employees which is usually to deliver the message that things are changing, again.

Pros

Great place to start your career since for the college grad, you have opportunities to upgrade your degree via tuition reimbursement. 401k is on par with the rest of the industry, but the rest of the benefits package is great.

Cons

Office politics is insanely vicious here. Employees not only need to be good at their job but also be good at positioning themselves politically in order to succeed. Employee respect is nonexistent. Management's idea of work/life balance is being able to stay at home on nights and weekend while you dial in and do more work. Program and project schedules are always totally unrealistic, so be ready for that type of “work/life balance” quite a bit. Managers of technical groups are usually not technical, and rely on their engineers to provide them with technical advice and knowledge, resulting in engineers being in meetings for at least 40% of their work day.

Advice to Senior Management

You lose a lot of good employees by burning them out or getting them so fed up with the schedules that they look elsewhere. Be realistic with program schedules and understand that they always change over time, especially when delays are early in the process it will affect the end dates accordingly. Train your managers in the content that their teams are providing (especially those that manage technical groups) so that they can have complete and total understanding of the issues that their direct reports face.

Pros

the flexibility and benefits package from EMC are very good compared to other companies. the structure and learning curve is great as well, depending on your role.

Cons

what is disappointing is growth within the same role. if you have been with the company for over 2 years and not switched positions, the financial benefits in salaries are restricted.

Advice to Senior Management

recognition with words is good when the economy is down. however, it's hard to give in your 100% with few financial increases and fewer resources.

Pros

Helpful co-workers, and understanding management. Company develops cutting edge technology and has a renewable source of new toys to play with, you learn new things every day

Cons

Late hours, a ton of work, very challenging, sharp learning curve, something is always in need of repair, but that makes it interesting!

Advice to Senior Management

More openness about the tactical objectives for the divisions. There are many inside press-releases and that helps, but more direct contact from upper management on these topics would be great.

Pros

Innovation and openness is promoted throughout the company. If you've got a good idea, you can raise it...with the chance that it may get accepted and developed!

Cons

At times, there is a sense that quantity (getting products out the door in time for release) is more important than quality (ensuring that WHAT we get out the door is worth getting out on time).

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that employees, not just stockholders, should benefit from the great year EMC had in 2010. Be sure to compensate them accordingly.

Pros

very work/life balanced. basically work 9-6.
lots of classes you can take.
annual bonus is awarded quarterly

Cons

the compensation is embarrassing compared with other tech companies. no stock options unless you're a certain level or above. very disincenting.

people have been working at the company for 15+ years. good in that there's a lot of institutional knowledge. bad in that people just kind of float there for their career. hard to be promoted if you haven't been there a minimum of 3 years.

so male dominated. HR tries to have programs to foster women but it's a joke. the management in my group literally sends out emails with "we have to be warriers, etc"

Advice to Senior Management

the management does a great job of managing the stock price and shareholder expectations. overall great vision for the company. unfortunately that reward is not shared among employees.

Pros

Strong financials and products, global exposure, work/life balance in some departments, ability to move around, majority of employees are good and smart people

Cons

Annual comp increases of 2-3% are not motivating when company making $1billion profit per year, matrix environment requires approval from everyone and prolongs new ideas, long time employees who refuse or are unable to change

Advice to Senior Management

Senior execs are making good decisions, but need to better evaluate VPs and how they run their organizations because losing good people and this will increase as economy improves

Pros

Good infrastructure including employee benefits.

Cons

Poor environment for career growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Refreshing mid management, including replacing and re-educating them, is the key.

Pros

Fast paced, driven company with a smart, grounded and visionary leader.

Cons

The corporate culture is old school, and not for everyone. For example, EMC is all about face time and if you're not in the office you're not working. HR has made attempts to change benefits and incorporate flex-time, work from home, etc but it's obvious that upper management is not supportive. Until the culture changes, it doesn't matter what strides HR makes towards work/life balance. It is also a very political company. If you get in with the right people there is opportunity. If not, EMC can be a dead end for you.