Nortel Networks Reviews

Pros

Flexible work environment, telecommute friendly, great benefits & vacation.

Cons

Advancement difficult if not on highly visible project. Poor executive leadership. Too much reinventing the wheel. Too CMM level focused.

Advice to Senior Management

Managers, rotate people to different parts of project. Focus on journey of process improvement instead of CMM level

Pros

Very good company to work for.
Good technical skills
Nice people to work with, lot of trust
Good recognition
Salary is good, if not above the market

Cons

The end of the story has been a pitty.
Very bad communication from management.
Bad business decision
too much politics between people at the end.

Advice to Senior Management

change job ! Don't work in managing position anymore

Pros

Nortel was a great company to work for with great products and services. I personally enjoyed the work-life balance that my manager encouraged.

Cons

It was unfortunate that years of gross mismanagement from the early 2000s plagued and eventually bankrupted the company in January 2009.

Pros

Great in the day as the telecommunications equipment provider.

Cons

They forgot who the Customer was....

Pros

Great people: loyalty to the company was very high, despite the turmoil
Interesting industry: success depended on continuing innovation
Unique culture: long, storied history mixed with start-up tech company feel

Cons

The company is going out of business, so there is very little need to search for jobs here in the future.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership at this point is simply closing up shop, so there is very little point in giving feedback on running the company. It's a very sad ending and one can't help feel like it was avoidable if leadership decisions were different years ago.

Pros

Nortel produced some of the most advanced products in the telecommunications field. The OC switching and the Enterprise groups really have great product portfolios to compete with competitors. Wireless was solid in TDMA, CDMA and LTE. The people you worked with were on average great people both professionally and personally.

Cons

Too many layers, complex matrix environment, too many people duplicating effort, focused on the wrong product (UMTS) whent he industry was leap frogging to LTE. Enterprise group should have led the way more to cut costs and bring in more revenue with Nortel brand recognition.

Advice to Senior Management

Too late the company is gone. So sad so many good people and products went under. If it comes back from the brink I would want to help bring this Canadian company back.

Pros

Touch many high-tech knowledge
Work with intelligent colleagues
Profit is good

Cons

Some management needs to be improved

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to have either strong technique ability or good communications with teammates or both.

Pros

Good benefits, working environment and great support from fellow employees

Cons

Once the end was in sight it was a disaster

Advice to Senior Management

to little to late

Pros

Working for Nortel made me grow not olnly as a human being but as professional, in this place I found a wonderful atmosphere where I made some good friends, as I grew in knowledge not only from my job but the people I was surrounded by great proffesionals who taught me to view the job as a means to give yourself as a human being and produce results for the company you work for.

Cons

The main downside from my experience in Nortel was that the company entered in a liquidation process which eventually led to the closing of the company, which was a great place to work

Advice to Senior Management

The feedback I can give is that all former employees from Nortel, keep the way they worked, while being employed by Nortel, and continue to grow in their own careers.

Pros

the people were the best

Cons

management lost focus on people and products

Advice to Senior Management

know your people. find out what makes them excited about coming to work. give them a path to furthere their career goals.