Hewlett-Packard Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

HP provides opportunities to challenge yourself and learn new things - I've often been assigned to (or asked to take on) a project in a new area. There is a wealth of diverse experience in the company, so it is not too difficult to find an expert's advice. "management by objective" means get your job done, but allows me independence and flexibility in my work schedule.

Cons

erroding benefits.... "pay for perfomance" rewards executives but leaves the workers bees with nothing (I haven't had a raise in 3 years), . getting more restrictive on vacation, no more stock options for the worker bees

Advice to Senior Management

don't sugar coat bad news - when you send out the "marcela-grams", bypass the bs and get straight to the bad news about what benefit is being changed. Don't feed me some bs line about why it is good for me.

Pros

Hard to think of many at this point. I'm a second generation HP engineer, and worked for the company for a few years before the death of the HP way. My only real good reason for liking working there is my group that I work with has exceptional people in it.

Cons

No raises even if promoted, or ranked the best in your group. Benifits are reduced on a quarterly basis it seems. The technical ladder is really just there for looks for the most part. We have managers, not leaders.

Advice to Senior Management

Read how Bill and Dave created the company, and get back to following that path! Making something unique to sell for a good price is not a bad thing, paying for other companies goods and putting your name on them is not what Bill and Dave built this company on.

Given today's standards for what's allowed to be developed or even considered, it is most likely the "Ink Jet" business would never have been started under Hurd.

Pros

The people I work with are the best.

Cons

The HP Way is gone and the company's values are violated regularly by executive and higher management. Lost trust and respect for all employees. Innovation and long term strategy are missing. Cutting research will hurt the business in the long run. Mark Hurd has more responsibility running the largest IT company in the world. And he needs to responsibly act on it.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to your people and morale. Cost reduction for short term Wall Street gains is not enough. The cuts are too deep and people / culture are not attended to. M&A is not the only way to grow. Organic growth is important. Looking at data and past performance is not enough. Cultures need to be understand too. Losing ground as competitive player with talent and innovation.

Pros

HP R&D engineers are typically top of their graduating classes. HP is still well known for producing well designed, reliable products for the consumer and enterprise markets. HP provides tools to get the job done effectively. Work schedule is flexible. Younger engineers can tap into the experience of the Senior engineers to accelerate design skills.

Cons

The future is not promising for HP engineers in the United States. Corporate agenda is to outsource US jobs. No real promotional opportunity.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest back into the US workforce, they are the reason for HP's products high quality and reliability.

Pros

The Company is a good place to get some experience.

Cons

-HP is starting to globally outsource many of their processes. While this is a good thing from the companies standpoint, having a stable job in this company is slim to nill if you are not willing to be global.

-Due to HPs shift from technological innovation to outsourcing/cost reduction, there are better opportunities in other business (i.e. Google, Toshiba, Sharp) that focus on innovation than short-term cost reduction. If engineering/ technological development is what you want to do, do not work for this company

-Given the global enviromnent of many businesses, it is very benifical that you are willing to take overseas assignments and willing to be a global employee. Flexibility is everything.

Advice to Senior Management

The company is growing due to cost cutting not innovation. That can take you only so far.

Pros

Health benefits, interesting work, talented people.

Cons

Layoffs. Upper management has only short term outlook.

Advice to Senior Management

Take more risks. Invest in employees. Strive to be the best in all areas not to benchmark and drive to the middle.

Pros

Although the CEO is trying his hardest to kill the HP culture, the people that you get to work with at HP for the most part are great. For the most part, HP people have good integrity, and willing to collaborate. We are always trying to do what is best for the customer even though the metrics put on us make that difficult.

Cons

Mark Hurd is good for shareholders but bad for employees. HP used to be a place where the people were assets and the company did what it could to provide for us but now it is a place where people are liabilities and only kept around if they can fuel growth.

Advice to Senior Management

You are killing the HP way and are losing very talented people in the process.

Pros

At the engineering level, the people are the greatest. They are some of the brightest, most talented and down to earth people I've encountered. The pay and benefits are still competitive, but that is quickly changes are more and more cuts are made. Excellent flex time and ability to balance work with home life. Every once in a while there is a company event (picnic, party, etc) that reminds me of the old HP, but those are becoming increasingly rare. Really, it is the people that are the biggest asset right now. As soon as they are gone, the company will die.

Cons

Benefits are cut on seemingly a daily basis. Upper-management is clueless. R&D is a thing of the past, the company is only interested in acquisitions now. It is all about expense control. There is no strategy for growth. Someone ahead of you needs to die or quit in order to be promoted. Layoffs are a regular occurance now - 23% reduction one month ago, another 15% this week with no end in sight. Forget about getting the resources and tools you need to do a good job, you are judged only by how much money you save the man upstairs.

Advice to Senior Management

Please leave.

Pros

I had been there 13 years so I was getting 4 weeks of vacation annually. Another benefit to staying (if I were to stay) would be eligibility for purchasing retirement medical insurance from the company's group plan if I could hold on until age 55 (or an early retirement event at age 50). Although I would be paying full cost for that benefit (although given that affordable medical insurance is impossible to buy at that age, that is still a good benefit). The other big benefit was the site is just 3 miles from my house (all the other jobs here are in Portland, OR, or further, a much longer commute).

Cons

I had been given a demotion due to falling below the line in their ranking system (I was unable to quit or risk being fired due to my husband being unemployed at the time). The biggest bad thing about working there is the unfairness of their employee evaluations and unfairness of how promotions are done. Managers there promote their friends and rate their friends well (all managers have been there enough years to know the employees, and have their circle of friends among the employees). There was a high-school atmosphere in the group where I worked where there were cliques and an in-group and an out-group (I was in the out-group).

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to managing the way Bill and Dave managed HP.

Pros

Great technology. Fairly good work/life balance (telecommuting, flexible hours, etc). A huge company where all skills are needed.

Cons

Recent shift from long-term investment in new technologies to cost-saving and make-a-buck-now attitude. Extreme high bonuses for upper-level senior management at the expense of raises (nonexistant), layoffs (recently 20% of DPT), and steady decline of benefits and perks.

No raises in the past 6 years. Promotions very difficult to come by and given to those in the "old boy" network.

Short-term cost savings measures coming every week (cut new employee reqs, stop travel budget, stop prototyping budget, stop tooling, etc, etc)

Morale sinking -- Lots of people surfing the Internet for new jobs

Advice to Senior Management

Stop raping the long-term viability of the company so you can get your short-term bonus for cost-reductions.