Enterasys Reviews

Pros

Strive to have the best technology
Great people in the field, very knowledgable
Focused on customers and support
Great benefits package

Cons

Slow to implement needed customer features as determined by the field
Very little Marketing "aircover"
No career advancement opportunitites within the company unless you are "tied" to HQ
Little reward or acknowledgement
No professional growth opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

Seriously consider input from the field-direct customer feedback on needed features
Recognize, support, and groom your stars in the field, take them seriously
Align the resources necessary to complete features and projects on time, no slipping

Pros

There are still some great leaders on the management team, but not all. Some of the better ones have left.

Cons

Since the passing of the former CEO and the merging with a former Siemens division, things have gone down hill. The current GM isn't having a positive impact and is a very poor communicator. There are way too many Aprisma cronies who should have been pushed out long ago. QA is the worst I've ever seen it in a technology company. There are some talented people in QA, and some that should go, but little or no leadership and none of the basic QA processes you'd expect in a company like this. PM is pretty good to work with but future is questionable since the exec leading that team left. Enterasys never seems to do enough marketing...budget seems to be the issue there and Siemens hasn't helped at all. The new marketing lead hasn't impressed me nor any one else that I know but I also haven't interacted with him much.

2008-2009 were tough but good years at Enterasys and a lot of progress and improvements were seen.Since then progress has stalled and in some cases regressed. Since they can't go back to 2008-2009 they should make major changes in their leadership team if they want to improve going forward.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the current GM and the Aprisma cronies and split off from Siemens. Take a closer look at what is going on in QA and go back to being a customer-focused development company instead of the engineering-focused company it has become again.

Pros

Interesting / Challenging work
Flexible Schedules

Cons

401K Matching is a joke

Pros

I met some nice people in other groups.

Cons

I had the worst experience of my career working at Enterasys. My manager directed me to perform certain tasks and then threw me under the bus when other managers balked. He regularly pushed for extra hours in the evenings and weekends. He frequently flip-flopped on his expectations for tracking our work. He allowed a co-worker to work on a project I had proposed behind my back. This manager was unorganized and clueless, in general, so I was never sure if this behavior was a result of incompetence, self-protective manipulations, or the environment he "grew up" in. I think the culture there played some role. It seemed to me there was a dog-eat-dog style of survival fostered during the Cabletron days under Benson and Levine where people were encouraged to work long hours in a crisis-driven environment. Rewards were given to people who worked the hardest and who were the quickest to dive on the latest crisis. Long-term planning and organization were not rewarded or prioritized. The layoffs only made this worse. During meetings for my project, management frequently resorted to gallows humour to describe the quality of the product. So I can attest to the fact that a dog-eat-dog environment does not add much value. Add to this the fact that Enterasys does not provide stock options but instead nebulous "units" that I could not get them to certify in any way after I left. I was taken aback when HR indicated they were worthless -- and I suppose would always be worthless? -- and so there was no point in providing me with more complete documentation for my records.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your managers. Don't just promote them because they've been there a long time. Provide ethics training. Provide industry-standard stake in the company if you expect people to work extra hours.

Pros

At Enterasys we have a very open culture.

Cons

Benefits package could be a bit better and more competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work.

Pros

-Good opportunity for engineers.
-Everybody is nice and have a big smile on their face...even when they insult you.
-They have a lot of parties and company events, as well as family events.
-Charitable company.
-You're working for a tech company that involves nothing immoral.

Cons

-Ugly building and environment. Big company, but looking at it brings no joy.
-No free soda or other drinks, except coffee.
-Managers suck. I hardly saw mines.The only time you see them is when somebody is in trouble. It promoted an environment of fear. Managers are more absorb in own career advancement than helping employees.
-People don't watch each other's back. It's like every man for themselves.
-People there sometimes consider buying cisco or other networking products.
-Many doors require you to press an exit button to get out. Very odd!

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on making company bigger by hiring more people and train them, and pay them well. A lot of people leave that company because they can get paid more. They're also scared to ask for a pay raise because of the environment of fear. Why would anybody from Cisco go to Enterasys for low pay? Then ya wonder why Enterasys is a no name?

And change the stupid company name. It's so perverted.

Pros

You get to know pretty much everyone in the company
Good technology, still unique and a differentiator
Good performers held in high esteem

Cons

Used to be Cabletron - didn't realize the lingering bad reputation of that former major player until I talked to former customers.
Not keeping up with latest solution trends
Private company - little incentive for owners to share financial upside with employees

Advice to Senior Management

It seems it's about time that the company be sold or further M&A be done. Combining with Siemens Enterprise doesn't seem to have done it.