NetApp Reviews

Pros

Growth, opportunity, very competitive compensation

Cons

Lack of structure, big growth attracts big opportunism.

Advice to Senior Management

Create more opportunities for upward feedback

Pros

excellent work and people. good work life balance - well, most of the time.

Cons

salaries could be higher. but i dont complain - i have everything else.

Advice to Senior Management

please dont petty politics infiltrate too much into the minds of engineers.

Pros

Good to great people to work with, good pay and benefits, great products that meet customer needs, company is well positioned in the storage market, strong executive team.

Cons

Many long time NetApp people, therefore company suffers from lack of mid-level managerial talent and competence. Certain groups (Marketing, Professional Services, Management Software Product Group) are disorganized and dysfunctional. Many mid-level managers and some VPs better at managing up and managing their own positions then managing their own team and growing their people. Inability to set measurable goals and assess performance leads to "focal review by popularity."

Advice to Senior Management

Have the mid-level managers, Directors, and VPs practice (and actually be measured on) what HR preaches around people development. Build a focal review program that is based on measurable impact - not politics.

Pros

friendly technical and managerial staff...also too good as workplace.

Cons

as far as i m here i don't think that any downsides here.

Pros

Great work atmosphere and open environment

Cons

Big company bureaucracy has kicked in.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Good benefits, positive environment, great upper management communication. The corporate culture encourages participation and the communications of successes and things necessary for success are clearly outlined.

Cons

Management tends to be "home grown" and not trained. This leads to ambiguity of method, goals and a lack of clarity of where to go when there are problems. Line employees are encouraged and developed. Managers are left on their own.

Advice to Senior Management

Management should encourage and build up managers more as they do with their line employees. In other areas, they should continue to keep doing what they do.

Pros

The benefits are good, the stock awards are good and the commitment to creating a culture of contribution is very powerful.

Cons

Middle management does not get a lot of encouragement or training. Most middle management is home grown and not trained. Expectations are hard to determine some time and for someone coming up from being an engineer, the transition can be uncomfortable.

Advice to Senior Management

Make more of an effort to treat your managers with the same encouragement that you extend to your engineers. Also provide more management training.

Pros

Great managers who are willing to teach interns and show them how to succeed. Fast paced environment with lots of areas to find a niche to do well.

Cons

Not many cons. There are very long demanding days sometimes. Company is sometimes overly process oriented and it affects productivity. The field is reluctant to change some business processes to make sales easier.

Pros

Great people
Company is growing so change is frequent

Cons

I don't know about the rest of the company, but IT is a terrible place to work. The business decisions made by senior management are unbelievably poor. Its clear the organization is very poorly run from the VP level to first level manager. Culture is one of rule by authority.
There is too much ridiculous process and no real feeling of teamwork across organizations.
You struggle to get things done because resources are so taxed. No common goals across the organization and there are way too many re-orgs. Like I said, other parts of the company might be good, but IT is definitely nowhere near top 5.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in all new management at every level. Words are cheap. If you say you value people, show it.
Do not allow politics to influence business decisions. Push back on PMO. Allow people to do their job without trying to define every single role. Very very few employees are happy in IT, they're just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can leave. IT is gaining a very bad reputation both inside and outside the company.

Pros

Fun culture, innovative staff, well managed.

Cons

Marketing department was going through a re-org so there was a bit of political conflict.