Isilon, A Division of EMC Reviews

Pros

Great people, awesome technology and we're going to make a difference in IT.

Cons

There's really nothing major; the challenges I see are good ones based on growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Really need to work on overall compensation packages. Isilon is seemingly tone-deaf on this for some reason. Hopefully, it will get better as part of EMC.

Pros

Relaxed environment, flexible hours and ability to work from home, great perks, decent benefits. Fast growing industry and entrepreneurial work place. Sales organization supplied with fully paid cell phone.
Management is willing to listen to employees about ideas on how to better the company and work environment, with genuine intention to help.

Cons

Acquisition by EMC in late 2010 has led to many integration growing pains. Many managers seem overwhelmed with growth of the company, as hiring and scale has been unbalanced with amount of work increase. End of month and end of quarter requires 12+hr work days. Senior management can be very disconnected with very little interaction with the "front line" of the organization. Seems disorganized at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Define a solid growth plan, share it with the employees to help facilitate growth and understanding how to get where the company wants to go. Provide more opportunities to grow within the organization for young talent. More communication from the top down; lower level positions feel disconnected from the "heart" of the company.

Pros

There is always something interesting to work on at Isilon. The Engineering team is relatively small, but growing rapidly. The overall system architecture is very good, and can be a pleasure to work with.

Cons

With at least one of the second-line managers, if you get on his bad side it's very difficult to get back on his good side. And sometimes folks seem to end up on his bad side for no obvious reason.

Pros

Very dynamic environment, and lots of exposure to leading edge technology. A vast array of challenges and projects to work on.

Cons

Unreasonable expectations for projects with small amounts of resources allocated to them. The work/life balance can suffer due to workload.

Advice to Senior Management

Listening to employee feedback and make efforts to improve the work environment.

Pros

Free coffee/snacks, parking, health insurance and a really great view of the Puget Sound. Every once in awhile there is also a company party, about once a quarter.

Cons

In Sales you get continually hosed over. Promotion opportunities are extremely rare to come by are unfairly given. You will also be vastly underpaid for your services if in inside sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Lip service is common, need to actually listen to people. Recognize valuable, tendered employees and reward them for their service.

Pros

Friendly, approachable co-workers who are willing to share their knowledge
Beautiful views all around but especially over Elliott Bay (i work in Seattle)
Dog-friendly. lots of people bring their dogs to work.
Parking/ transportation/ health club
Frequent training sessions avialable
Focus on hiring from within

Cons

Growing pains (that's to be expected though in any company where business is booming)
Processes arent always well-defined.
Although the view is great the neighborhood isn't very good especially at night
Heavy workloads

Advice to Senior Management

Continue hiring excellent people. Even though the workload is heavy right now the positions are being filled, just not as quickly as if the goal was just to get bodies in the door.

Pros

There's not many "Pros" to this company. Good product for a niche player.

Cons

If you're not a manager or above you get treated like #$@#. Their only objective is build a very large company without remembering the people who got you there. There's a lot of false promises without any reasoning....take or leave it mentality. I've seen A LOT of great talent leave because of this mentality.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a working atmosphere where people want to come to work. Value your employees with action, not words.

Pros

- many different groups
- great view
- large, public company
- interesting technologies

Cons

- poor upper management
- my direct manager was poor at communicating his thoughts and concerns
- high turnover
- location
- large, public company

Advice to Senior Management

Perhaps this is what happens in large, public companies but communication from upper management down to the engineering groups was pretty poor. With different groups and priorities, I would have liked to have seen more cohesion. Also, my direct manager who is still at Isilon, was poor at communicating direction within our group and just a poor manager overall.

Pros

There are many technically competent individuals working here. The technical challenges are exciting. The customers use the product for real work. My effort goes into a product used by many around the globe. The strength of the product's value proposition and the size and growth of the market opportunity go a very long way in compensating for the mistakes of management.

Cons

Management is extremely inexperienced at managing. They make a lot of very common and disastrous mistakes. Problems are ignored until they become critical issues. The development process has many flaws, and these are neither recognized nor addressed in any systematic fashion. Those in power subscribe to the delusion that individuals can innovate without the support of management. Innovation is seen as either a waste of time or a threat to order.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not disparage employees, either current or former. Do not disparage customers, ever, to anyone, for any reason. Be sincere and honest to people, be they peers, employees, vendors, partners, or customers. Do not play games with deadlines and requirements. Do not mislead others (or yourself) about your own knowledge of the customer, the market, or the technology. Withholding information from sales and support is a problem. These groups need to be trusted and allowed insight into the engineering process, not cut off and treated within a damage control regime.

Pros

Great Location, Great Perks with Gym, Parking, Stock Options etc.. Friendly People, Free Snacks and Soda. The outside sales team is great to work with and there are some small opportunities for Travel.

Cons

The Management is very very very very poor at communicating, there is NO development or training programs. I have worked at Start Ups and they had a much more defined compensation plan and career path than Isilon. There is a lot of churn as with any Tech Company but be prepared to spin your wheels for a while and be told day in a day out that your opportunity is right around the corner.

FRUSTRATION will become a normal state of mind.

They desperately need some outside consulting on sales processes and sales operational management from the ground up.

It doesn't help when my manager is the worst I have ever had.

Advice to Senior Management

Start over and let someone from the outside come in and rework the system. It's broken, people aren't held accountable and good people are leaving. Sujal is great but there are no real incentives for excelling at your job, there is no light at the end of the tunnel and burn out comes quick.