NetApp Reviews

Pros

lots of intern activities. upper management (and all other employees) very open to helping/talking to interns

Cons

some workplace drama occurred, nothing too big

Advice to Senior Management

Have more younger management.

Pros

- great products
- smart people
- market leader
- good compensation and benefits

Cons

- Senior leaders are reactive, not aligned and constantly shifting priorities. Often times this indecisiveness stalls implementation of great ideas. Projects get thrown into holding patterns and teams churn multiple cycles and waste valuable time and resources because of this.
- Most people in mid-level roles are people with long tenures at NetApp and got promoted for sticking around. Unfortunately, their lack of openmindedness and immaturity stifles good ideas and keeps experienced and talented people in a box.
- Lots of reorgs
- constant state of reactive fire drills caused by indecisive management and competitive pressure
- A lot of red tape, for even the simplest of things.
- Lots and lots (and lots) of huge egos here, and that makes things difficult - too many people insisting it be their way or the highway.

 It's a shame to see politics and assanine processes halt progress. There are tons of great people and great ideas that - if implemented in a reasonable timeframe - would put NetApp ahead of EMC years ago and keep us there.

Advice to Senior Management

Hold senior leaders to account for executing against a plan and sticking to priorities. Abandon old ways of doing things and give people more freedom to execute.

Pros

Friendly, flexible, oriented towards future growth, opportunity and change. NetApp is an easy place to call home and I enjoy the variety of options provided for my growing interests in the marketing space.

Cons

Due to highly collaborative environment, it can sometimes be a challenge to move projects forward quickly. Some teams are more flexible than others when it comes to things like work from home or flex hours.

Advice to Senior Management

You're doing a great job. I have only met one person who didn't have a good experience at NetApp and it was mostly due to them preferring a different corporate culture.

Pros

High technical standard for most employees
Software focused company
Quality products
Good culture (in RTP - so far)
Weekly Beer Bash in RTP is outstanding

Cons

Cisco wanna-be (what a shame)
Mid-to-Low compensation
Short vacation time (only 12 days)
Small bonuses
Shrinking benefits
Not as progressive as they should/could be
Way too much emphasis on Greatest Place to Work

Advice to Senior Management

NetApp is a really good place to work that has the potential to be a great place to work. Some of the company founders are still around and I have to believe exert a positive influence in making the culture at least feel progressive. Unfortunately, Sr Execs are making the same mistakes many other companies have made. They focus on hiring low salary employees in 3rd world, fill executive positions by hirong outside instead of promoting from within, contain costs by not giving raises and cutting benefits, inequitably share the wealth of the company and, worst of all, think because they do well in Greatest Place to Work surveys falsely believe they're doing a good job creating a great company. What they don't realize is that doing well in those silly surveys is more about hiring lower quality employees with reduced expectations than it is about improving the culture of the company.

NetApp is not a sweatshop though and management, up to this point, is mostly reasonable to very good. They got a few things right. Weekly RTP Beer Bash is a small investment with a massive payback of goodwill (everyone has a blast socializing with colleagues). There is a real Cisco cancer however and it needs to be removed though I don't have high hopes. I know to avoid those areas but sooner or later it will spread to the point of pervasiveness.

Advice to management: Forget Cisco. Stop hiring from there. Look to Google or Amazon or Facebook to model yourself. Be a progressive company. Throw convention out the window, kick MBA's out the door. Truly splurge on your staff level employees then watch innovation skyrocket and productivity improve.

Pros

Raleigh office - Every friday is beer bash, work stops around 3:30 and they bring down kegs for everyone to drink and some small snacks and beer food. They have had in the past casino night maybe once a year, a little carnival, and other events for the employees and their family where they give out prizes. They also have a pool table, a ping pong table, and a small but useful gym when you are working late.

Cons

I spent five years at the company as a system administrator under different titles; two years as an intern and three years under three different contractors. In my time there I experienced a lot of first line manager turnover when my office was transitioning, because they were promoting the wrong people in my particular group. Finally, I'm fairly young and felt some serious age-ism, but not sure that is Netapp specific. Money related compensation is sub-par, but the benefits are worth it for many people, especially engineers.

Pros

- Well respected products, established brand
- A soup-to-nuts integrated system provides a good framework for innovation
- Most engineers are very competent, likewise most executives

Cons

- The special attributes that made the company so successful have dissipated; becoming ":just another big corporation."
- Review and promotion process is capricious, and employees get no opportunity to give feedback about the performance of their management
- Poorly conceived processes weigh down engineers and make simple improvements ridiculously hard
- Despite hand-wringing about quality, code quality is ignored; processes encourage a bandaid-only approach, resulting in a complicated mess
- Getting anything major accomplished requires enormous patience and tenacity; many efforts slide out for years.
- Increasingly, a stale, inbred and non-creative environment

Pros

Netapp pays well and offer very flexible schedule. The technology is good for the resume. Fun people. They offer beer bashes.

Cons

The pay raises were very low (1-2% increase). They are slave drivers. I pulled all-nighters very frequently. They have zero process (development). Everything is done in a ad-hoc fashion. One director often said in meetings: "make each working day an urgent day." What is that supposed to mean? That people should not have a life?

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the slave driving and let's get some real software development process in place. Outlaw the ad-hoc way of doing things. Netapp is not a start-up

Pros

Size of company is good enough to get good work and recognition, unlike big companies like Microsoft.

Cons

NetApp India has lot of fluctuation between salaries offered for same experience - depends on how good the employee bargains. Should offer consistent package according to their standard in the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer competitive package as per NetApp's position in market irrespective of employee's bargaining skills.

Pros

Smart people
Excellent pay and benefits
Good work life balance

Cons

Zero opportunity for career growth
Unreasonable work-loads calling for long hours
Promotions based on favoritism and image, instead of actual hard work
Upper management has a God-complex

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying about the image people convey and start rewarding hard work.

Pros

Can maintain work life balance well

Cons

Middle managers are just busy making their own castles, and they have made their dedicated connections, its almost like a cult not a culture.
if you fit their stereotype, you are good else not (that involves only drinking at work or happy hours)
They dont really care about the work you can do, they just want you in the team if you can be fun not serious abut getting work done.
If you immediate manager wants to ignore you then god save you, better to leave and find another job even in a bad economy.

Advice to Senior Management

More middle management reviews and stricter ones.