F5 Networks Reviews

Pros

F5 is a leader in it's market space. Really smart people, great place to learn about the technology and industry. People are friendly and there is a genuine willingness to help one an other.

Cons

Engineering is driven company, which is not necessary a bad thing. Lack of structure and processes in the marketing organization. Unless you work 24/7 you have little chance is changing the direction of the products you supposedly manage.

Advice to Senior Management

Get involved in how the company is run and small people keeping you at the top;)

Pros

Company is growing
F5 cares about its employees

Cons

Divisions operate as silos with different goals for different groups.

Pros

has good products and very efficient on the current level (see cons)

Cons

cross-functional and group communication needs improvements

Advice to Senior Management

listening skills are essential to make improvements

Pros

Most people are aware of the unusual perks of this company (beer Friday, game room, etc.). In addition to these perks, I would say that F5 has a social conscience that most companies don't have and I commend them on these efforts. The benefits package is robust at a time when many companies have scaled back. The employees are very intelligent people that are motivated by the technological advantage of the product over competitors. The momentum and potential of this company are impressive and I absolutely love the idea of F5, it's the day-today reality of it that needs work.

Cons

They solicit employees pretty heavily to vote in the 'awards' so the fact that they win them is not surprising.

You will be reeled in by all the awards and perks only to find that a MOUNTAIN of work is dumped on you. F5 has great benefits and is a cool company, but have no doubt that you will work very hard. They run so lean that most employees have unrealistic workloads that require nights and weekends just to keep up. Standard Operating Procedures are almost non-existant and you will in many cases have to fight just to meet industry standards. Projects are being scoped at too high a level to get an accurate assessment of timeline and budget, then handed off for implementation to the people who should have scoped it and now have to execute under unrealistic project goals. While their technologies are superior, they have lost touch and I find it shocking that a technical company is so archaic in actual execution processes and tools. You can be working on the exact same thing as someone in a different department and both sides would benefit from a collaborative effort, but the lack of communication at the management level causes redundant work flows all over the company. If you take a look at the details of every review on here, you will notice a pattern in both good and bad reviews of the areas that were marked with lower scores.

The communication breakdown within and between departments is degrading the overall culture of F5 and I would say that this is the single biggest threat to the company. While they may see this, they may not realize how critical this has become and I am not sure if they are taking strong enough steps to fix this in time.

Advice to Senior Management

Your great ideas and strategies are being poorly executed. Identify the problem areas (communication, collaborative efforts cross-department, balanced workloads, realistic timelines) and move to correct them before the culture completely falls apart. There is dissention in the lower ranks that is being ignored and it will cost you quality employees, and more money in the long run. I am optimistic that you recognize the issues, I am just not sure you are being aggressive enough in the implementation of solutions.

Pros

The best reason to work at F5 Networks is definitely how much any employee, anywhere in the company, learns. It is nearly impossible to work at F5 Networks for a few years without becoming a superior technical person, as any job dictates an understanding of so many aspects of so many things.

Cons

Downsides are mostly localized into certain groups within the company, not in the company as a whole. Some groups don't pay as well as others and the complaint is compensation. Some groups work their employees really hard.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know the job well enough to approve or disapprove, it's much easier to be a critic than actually do it.

Pros

A very positive, happy environment, mainly because the company is doing so well al over the world, but also because they seem to be hiring some good people.

Cons

The UK HQ is in a bit of a backwater, hard to get to and its poor style gives the wrong impression of a very good company.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend a bit more money on presentation and style. Considering they lead the market they could also do with some advertising to raise the profile.

Pros

Lots of technical information available to all employees. Information sharing/collaboration among knowledge workers was excellent.

Cons

Very little strategic direction. The products were very poorly aligned with the market needs. The functionality of the core product was excellent. A disconnect within the company regarding the user interface of the configuration utilities caused frustration among technical workers. Organizational structure was flawed; creating commodity workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Your products are over engineered and cost too much. You have strategic direction, yet the perception among your customer base regarding that is the opposite. You lack a cohesive sales strategy.

Pros

F5 has received numerous awards for being a great place to work. I have spent time directly working in the offices of other tech giants or as an employee of those companies and non of them compare.

1. Interesting work - Check
2. Smart, hardworking co workers - Check
3. Good Benefits - Check
4. Strong Compensation Package - Check
5. Work/Life Balance - Check
6. Industry Leader - Check
7. Focus on Employee retention - Check

F5 understands that the employees are strategic assets and goes OUT OF ITS WAY to ensure that once you work for F5 you do not want to work anywhere else.

I have had many jobs where I have thought how will this lead to my next position in the next 2 or 3 years. With F5 I am focused on where my career with F5 will go.

Cons

Have not had any come up in the last year.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase the transparency between Product Development and Systems Engineers / Support teams. The SE and Support organizations have a tremendous amount of contact with our customers and having better vision into the future of the products can help create a positive feed back loop.

Pros

-Great medical, dental and vacation benefits!
-Small enough that you can help grow and expand the business. You really do make a difference.
-Lots of potential here
-On Site gym
-Beer Friday

Cons

-poltical work environment
-small enough that the more niche positions aren't available or there.
-lacking in organization and systems management that you find in larger coorperations
-in need of restructuring due to growth

Advice to Senior Management

-management is heading in the right direction in terms of technology and advancement.
-work on getting rid of the political environment inherent in a large number of companies

Pros

Probably one of the most fun work environments I've ever been apart of. The company has an employee party that starts at 3pm every Friday in their game room. Beer, soda, water and snacks are provided. The culture is very relaxed and they have almost no dress code. The company has some great processes in place to continue to scale operations.

Cons

The only downside is that a lot of the sales staff have formed a relatively tight clique. If you found yourself outside of the clique, you will still enjoy your work, although you will seem like an outsider in the office on a daily basis.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is doing a good job here. Continue to dump money into Research and Development because the investment that has been made in this department has put F5 on the cutting-edge of what they do. Spend the money to get the best Systems Engineers, because the customers were consistently impressed with their knowledge and viewed them as a buying resource.