Hewlett-Packard Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

Smart co-workers, flexible work schedule, telecommuting

Cons

Benefits have been slashed and pay cut. All upper management focuses on is short term profit. Can't get the support you need because of cost reductions. Morale is extremely low.

Advice to Senior Management

Start focusing on the future of the company. Employees are fed up and getting ready to leave. Systems don't work and results in bad data and wasted effort.

Pros

Despite the steady whittling of the benefits package (all in the name of benchmarking against our "peers") and the recent salary reduction, the compensation is still competitive. The first few layers of management still care about the troops and do their best to hold on to the best of the HP Way in the face of assaults from on high. The work is engaging and there's still substantial freedom given to pursuing individual courses of action. A good place for self-starters.

Cons

Upper management is spineless and incompetent. Earlier attempts to diversify out of the core printing businesses were sacrificed as "science projects". Living large for so long on lucrative ink and toner sales, we are now paying the price as printing loses its cachet. Budgets have been slashed to the bone - it's difficult to get office supplies, software, anything needed to get the job done. Where once there was ample support to ensure technical people were spending their time inventing, now it's all do-it-yourself. Fear and risk-avoidance are creeping in, and no one puts in more time than is required.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your heads out of the sand. Things aren't all rosey in your kingdom. Good quarterly financials may please Mark Hurd and investors, but you're redlining the engine to get them and there's nothing left in the tank. When the economy starts picking up, you're going to step on the accelerator and there's going to be nothing there. A company gets what it rewards, therefore it gets what it deserves. Right now it is not rewarding innovative product development, it is rewarding the aggressive selling of increasingly commoditized technologies.

Pros

Very open environment. Management communicates well with individual employees. Great work-life balance: very flexible. Easy to move around to other jobs internally (this was especially true years ago).

Cons

Has become very good at laying off. No clear commitment to funding development. Downsizing and cutting bennies are very regular occurrences lately.

Advice to Senior Management

Not sure what to say--no complaints with low and medium level management. It's a tumultuous market, and printer product areas are facing huge pressure.

Pros

great people. work can be fun until you have to deal with corporate bureaucracy.

Cons

cost cutting till we hit bone then go a little deeper. management initiatives that often hinder work then help. single minded about cost cutting never looking at the bigger picture.

Advice to Senior Management

go back to business school and learn about long term business plans.

Pros

HP is a large corporation with huge resources. If you can catch one of the current waves within the corporation you are likely to gain some great skills in managing complex projects and big deals.

Cons

HP increasingly outsources its creation of new technology and manufacturing. If you are the type that wants to develop that next innovative device, one of HP's suppliers is a better place to be. On top of this there are regular layoffs which seem to be reactionary to some arbitrary profit goal. The company is making good profits, so it is not to balance the cash flow. Also, benefits and pay are on the downward trend. The number of high talent leaving voluntarily is happening and increasing. 3 years ago, this was unheard of. Advice, if you want the "big deal" skills, is get in, learn, and then move on.

Advice to Senior Management

Your talent is leaving. If you truly want technological innovation you need to offer something besides a good bonus to select individuals. Many people want stability over pay, and HP does not provide this.

Pros

Good training to take on to next chapter in career.
Recognized brand
International/global experience

Cons

Has become highly political organization with lack of respect for individuals.
Sacrificing long-term sustainability and competitiveness for short-term financial gain

Advice to Senior Management

Take care of your employees, who will take care of your customers, which in turn will take care of stockholders

Pros

There are some really great, talented people to work with. HP values work life balance. People are very smart and good at what they do. Good team players.

Cons

HP is moving away from research and development. HP focuses too much on the short term results, pays too much attention to the stock holders rather than its employees. HP used to provide a lot more trainings to the employees, but now, HP has reduced the training budget by a lot. Executive members are getting too well compensated, while employees are getting not.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management do not share enough on the company direction; they should be more open to their employees.

Pros

HP has a certain momentum associated with its' founders that is still evident in its' core values. Historically there has been little turnover in hardware development engineering circles and this leads to long, productive, and satisfying professional relationships. Humongous company with its' fingers in just about everything so there is a lot of opportunites.

Cons

The last two CEOs, Carly and Mark, have made fundamental changes in the company that make it a distant echo of what it used to be. Today it is all about efficiency, and numbers with lip-service given to its' so-called "people promise". Bottom line is the people are just another asset, and are as expendible as other tools the Company uses then discards.

Advice to Senior Management

Your focus on efficiency and numbers is killing the soul of this once-great Company. People matter.

Pros

Great Co-workers and tradition of teamwork and innovation. Hewlett-Packard was a great place to work as a mechanical engineer when HP invested in developing a wide range of imaging hardware platforms. Hewlett-Packard was a great place to work as a manufacturing engineer when we developed manufacturing capabilities for low cost high precision products. If you enjoy transferring technology to asian subcontractors and the challenges of maintaining quality in a cost driven offshore environment, you may enjoy working for the new HP. HP is milking the cash cow of it's printer hardware development business and if you enjoy cutting costs in a declining business environment, you may enjoy working for the new HP. If you're in the services business and your work contributes immediately to the bottom line, you may enjoy working for the new HP.

Cons

Rapidly degrading benefits and work environment. Excessive focus on short term profit growth through employee benefits reduction and real estate sales. Declining funding for R&D and developing new markets. Outsourcing of all manufacturing offshore. Revenue growth through acquisitions instead of internal investment. If you are a mechanical, electrical, or digital hardware engineer your long term opportunities at HP are limited.

Advice to Senior Management

Take the risks necessary to innovate and develop new markets.

Pros

the local management still stick to the HP way. There is respect for the individuals and a desire to develop people.

Cons

In Vancouver you have a dieing organization. There are no opportunities for advancement. There are fewer jobs every quarter, and eventually it looks like they will shut us down. If I'm lucky I can ride out the recession here.

Advice to Senior Management

There are more important things in life than your quarterly bonus.