NetApp Reviews

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – this is a good place to work and deserves the fortune best places to work. Perhaps experiencing some growing pains but that's normal for most growing companies.

Cons – Experiencing some growing pains but that's normal for most growing companies but overall this is a great place to work for.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to the engineers and the products group. There is a lot of talent out there waiting for the right opportunity.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at NetApp

Pros – Highly collaborative
Really good people
Approachable senior management
Positive environment
Very good communication
Makes you want to come to work

Cons – Need more flexibility on telecommuting...some parts are a little old-school
Lots of pressure to do a lot with few people
Development is too passively endorsed...it's about productivity

Advice to Senior Management – Don't let changes in leadership sway you from the historical positives in the culture...open communication, showing compassion, being approachable and not persecuting someone for a mistake.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – good place to work, proper work life balance, management is helpful, goodd place for working mother, compensation is good. overall you will be satisfied

Cons – you will work on same technologies, relocation is difficult even if you have a valid reason,
few location in major cities

Advice to Senior Management – pleas allow employees to work in technologies they like, make relocation easier process incase of marriage , over they are pretty cool

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – flexible work hours
work from home
fruit day
donut day
monthly engineering beer bash ( weekly before the Great Recession)
free milk and coffee

Cons – no profit sharing
no free lunch or dinner
fruit can be stale

Advice to Senior Management – keep it up the good things.

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – The company is very employee friendly. Culture is given a very high priority on the company's strategic initiatives which is rather rare in today's very competitive and challenging business environment. Work force restructuring is truly considered a last resort during tough economic times

Cons – Strategic initiatives need more substance. They tend to be too marketing oriented and lack enough substance.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the extremely high priority on company employees. It is refreshing in today's business climate that NetApp continues to keep a high priority on its people.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – Great people, great communication from management, great benefits, great products. Emphasis on doing the right thing from a cultural, ethical, and environmental standpoint. Culture is great 90% of the time. Compensation is good but not super, though high-performing sales reps seem to make the big bucks when they have a good year. Execs are good at recognizing when a strategic change of direction is needed, but executing that change sometimes takes too long.

Cons – Not the best at integrating acquisitions. Sometimes too much "Not Invented Here" attitude. Different business units don't closely coordinate strategy or planning, though recently this has improved somehwat. Many products or features are innovative and best-in-class but several products have been neglected, making them less competitive. Company was designed for ultra-high growth then dialed back to fast growth after dot-com crash, but now has to adjust in era of slow-to-moderate growth, which has required some difficult decisions.

Work-life balance and flexibility depends on your manager, though most including mine seem reasonable. Engineering gets reorganized more often than needed. Sometimes the wrong Director/VP/SVP gets hired and introduces excess politics or nepotism for a few years before the top execs notice and replace him/her.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work on company culture, communication, and Great Place to Work initiatives. Take better care to nurture and integrate acquisitions. Encourage line managers to see the big picture impact of their decisions. Double check that you're not being short-sighted when you decide to kill a product.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – Benefits are great, people genuinely care and try to help each other out. Training available when time permits. Interesting products and good senior management.

Cons – Management style of different regions vastly different. Obvious drive to push the "numbers" at all costs. Starting to see shift in Professional Services Organization towards micro-management. PS folks in one region no longer in control of their own scheduling which limits flexibility and growth.

Advice to Senior Management – Give scheduling power back to the people in the field and re-establish the fact that you trust your people to do the right thing in the interest of the company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – NetApp has a focus of including employees in important decisions and caring for employees - 5 paid days of volunteer time off, stock option exchange program, no salary cuts during the downturn. Employees at all levels are included in determining the business strategy and go forward planning.

Cons – I can't think of any!

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work - employees have a high level of trust because of your integrity, open communication and the efforts made to keep them whole during the downturn!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at NetApp

Pros – Excellent growth, fantastic culture for technical people. Leadership is good, but unilateral. Company throws (or used to throw) great parties for customers and partners. There are lots of venues to learn and share information, but it really boils down to who you know and how much they trust you. Tenure doesn't mean much since most of the senior staff have been there for long times, but if you're willing to work hard to get ahead, there's lots of opportunities. You need to be able to recite technical documents verbatim to impress senior leadership for promotions or raises. Promotions won't come often, either, as they have more often gone outside of the company rather than promote from within any more, which is funny since that's how most senior leadership got to where they are.

Cons – Blind to faults or shortcomings of products. Too much "build it because we know best" mentality. There would be more career opportunities if the economy was better. Recent reduction in force ensured senior management got their bonuses at the expense of those who lost their jobs. Nothing noted or released to the press that the executives were foregoing their bonuses to keep the company in the black. The culture is one of fostering growth, but the problem is that people hoard data and information to make themselves more important. There are also the usual "clique" type mentalities that have to be dealt with in order to get information and to get ahead. Leadership is good, but unilateral. You're expected to pull yourself up by your bootstraps without the moral boost if you don't work in a corporate office.

Advice to Senior Management – Think twice about how the message percolates downward. It's perceived as too much CYA not to get laid off at the bottom since the top rarely changes in the same RIF manner.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at NetApp

Pros – Great company. World class management team. Executives you can trust. Very customer focused.

Cons – Over time company has forgotten who made it great. Engineers. There is simply too much talk, and very little action. First and second level managers do not have engineer's best interest at hand. Developer productivity is abysmal. Seriously please look at LOC / engineer.

Advice to Senior Management – Too much hierarchy, talk etc in engineering. Establish risk-taking attitude again in engineers. They have been smothered by incompetent managers. Reward hard skills. YOU CAN DO IT. Screw EMC, Go NetApp :)