Linksys Reviews

Pros

People, products, leadership, benefits. It is great to be around so many fellow employees that are smart and motivated. The products are best in class and can't wait for the exciting future of home networking 2.0...very, very existing stuff. Leadership keeps everyone motivated and really like how they let you run your projects like it is your own business...no one watching you 24/7, just accountability. Benefits are the best. You can only get better if you are a fireman, policeman, teacher, government worker or in utilities industry.

Cons

You must be driven. No room for slackers.

Advice to Senior Management

Be flexible and take market share. Keep the work force motivated. Execution is the key.

Pros

As of today, Linksys is a great place to:
- work if you like to just hangout and go to Starbucks!
- Get paid full time and have another part time job if you like!
- be entertained by the circus acts of management!
- Slack off and be backed up by a mother company with a deep pocket!

Cons

Nothing gets done.
No leadership at all.
Great people leaving.
Hmmm..what was the last new product they launched? Are we in revision 10 of our G router yet?

Advice to Senior Management

It's clear that current management failed. Time for a new team.

Pros

Company benefits are excellent. Flexible work hours and telecommuting are available. Good company 401k match. The culture is changing from entrepreneurial to very command-and-control corporate - could be good for a lot of people.

Cons

Everything is political and management is disconnected from the day-to-day operation of the company. The GM has brought in his buddies, many of whom are has-beens from the PC industry. Promotions and rewards are handed out arbitrarily. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing most of the time. The company is trying to become a "consumer products" company and failing so far.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to act like you actually care about your employees and make the gutsy decisions that need to be made. People will respect you for it. Management commuication at Linksys is the WORST I have seen at any company.

Pros

Quick changing environment and lots of access to career advancing knowledge whether within or outside the company. If you are a self sufficient person you are typically given the freedom to figure things out on your own.

Cons

The overall direction of the company at times seems to not be very focused. There is lots of internal issues between departments where not too many people seem to be aware of what others are doing even though the goal is the same for everyone.

Compared to other companies in the area the salary is still a bit low. The environment also leads to an atmosphere were people are sometimes afraid to take risks which stifles innovation.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to clearly define a strategy for the company that does not consist entirely of buzzwords and industry jargon.

Pros

- Resources & tools from Cisco (which is one huge mass of a tech company)
- Decent benefits & training (when requested)
- Option to telecommute (depending on your department)
- A few motivated and intelligent employees (when you find them, and if they stick around)
- Bonus and stock option program (albeit shrinking fast)

Cons

- Limited opportunities for career advancement & growth within the company
- A lot of incompetent management who talk the talk, but don't walk the walk
- Hiring process is atrocious, under (or over) qualified employees come and go on a regular basis
- Pay is relatively low compared to competitors
- Not enough perks (free water & soda, that's it)

Advice to Senior Management

- Need to give your employees more recognition and reward, these people make you look good
- More opportunities to promote within, especially when hiring externally backfires
- Lack of incentive or motivation for your employees

Pros

Working with the edge of consumer technology has its perks as far as being able to apply many of these technologies in your own home. Free water, drinks. Nice balance between work, life. Being part of the Cisco family offers some great advantages from its benefits package, stock, partner program, discounts on endless stuff..etc.

Cons

Everything else... Career development and opportunities are very limited, Incompetent managers who just play the "cover your ass" game for everything. Employee Morale is low. Senior leadership, When you think of the Leadership team picture a dragon with many heads all pushing towards a different direction - Too many chiefs, not enough Indians has never been more true.

Advice to Senior Management

Think outside the box. Have a backbone and go up to bat for your staff from time to time!

Pros

If you love consumer technology in spite of all the downsides

Cons

Poor leadership - senior management is highly political and selfishly-driven, spending most of their time sparring with Cisco executive management for promotions or quibbling with other Linksys executives to avoid accountability for lack of results. When failures do come to light, senior management shifts the blame to middle managers who then take the fall (terminations and severances), instead of owning up to their mistakes and taking steps to correct them and strengthen their department.

Broken organizational structure - career development is a buzz-word at Linksys that is in reality another delusion of senior management. Talented employees go unrecognized, with the exception of a spot bonus (called Above and Beyond Awards) for those who are paid sub-market salaries, yet put in prolonged overtime (weekends and nights for weeks on end) to complete under-resourced projects. These poor individuals get a quick thank you from their manager and $500 gift card to Fashion Island, but receive no career development plan, no opportunity for advancement, and no merit salary increases. As the organization grew, new headcount went to executive management cronies, either from external companies or Cisco – ironic considering the GM held a senior management position at GE which is well-known for its culture of internal management training and development. Linksys is consequently very top-heavy, and add to that the poor leadership skills of this set, any individual looking for a place to grow and advance their career would be wiser to look elsewhere. Smart, talented individuals who do join Linksys often leave within 12 months, leaving behind two types of employees: those who try to resign but are given a raise to stay on, and those who lack the self-confidence and initiative to look for a better employer.

Functional silos – departments, even teams within a single department don’t communicate or coordinate with each other. Deliverables are either redundant or at cross-purposes with other teams. Confusion is the common vibe among employees, and frustration is often released through hallway or cube-side gossip chats. It’s no joke that meetings are frequently preceeded by pre-meetings to discuss what needs to be done at an upcoming meeting. And progress is usually made only by holding meetings that force other teams to present deliverables. Being double or triple booked with meetings is more common than not, making nights and weekends catch-up time, or you call a meeting to work in “real time” with others.

Advice to Senior Management

Do what's right for the company, for your employees -- think beyond your own personal gains
Agree on just a few common goals for the business, then put the right team in place to execute and don't stand in their way
Hold yourself, as well as your staff, accountable to those goals. Don't change direction mid-stream
Try to smile and remember not to take yourself so seriously. You're solving home networking, not world peace.

Pros

There is a tasty sandwich shop across the street.

Cons

I would categorize the culture at Linksys as astonishingly unhealthy and supremely dysfunctional. This is a ship without a captain, a map or a rudder. Linksys is a company so lacking in senior leadership that most of their new product ideas die on the vine, there is a catastrophic lack of communication that permeates every endeavor and an epidemic of social dysfunction, toward the correction of which, human resources is decidedly flaccid.

Advice to Senior Management

This is difficult as the lack of strong Senior Management is where the trouble begins at Linksys. I would say to senior management "take one for the team" (the team, in this case, being everyone from the employees to the shareholders). Linksys desperately needs new leadership.

Pros

There isn't much good to say about Linksys at the moment. We get Cisco benefits.

Cons

Poor management; plenty of "pie in the sky" vision by no execution skills or planning; No communication; groups work in silo's; no recognition or rewards for hardworking employees; Company has become WAY TOO top heavy. New leadership knows nothing about consumer networking. Terrible employee morale;

Advice to Senior Management

They all need to be fired and replaced with a team that knows (1) about consumer networking, (2) is accountable for something...anything, (3) listens to those of us in the trenches, (4) doesn't hand out promotions to unqualifed, political ass kissers.