Nortel Networks Reviews in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Area

Pros

Great Benefits and Pay with decent management at the mid and lower levels

Cons

We just recently filed for bankruptcy and are in the process of selling off all assets. A bit of a shame and depressing.
Future is very uncertain.

Advice to Senior Management

You guys should have cut unprofitable divisions a long time ago rather than have them continue to suck the life out of the company.

Pros

Good Benefits Good products The team I worked with was very good and I was sorry to be laid off from that group

Cons

Management indecision. My job priorities changed literally every six months the entire time I worked there.

Advice to Senior Management

Make a plan and give it a chance to work. Changing every six months hurt our team's momentum, commit to at least a year with a plan. Get a clue on the comp plans, have them ready day one of the new year. Use Q4 of 07 and Q1-3 of 08 to set the plans. It's unprofessional to have a not have your plan until Q2 of the year you are in. Last, if you want to cap comp plans at 125%, then admit it instead of the disguising it in the CRB, that just tears up morale.

Pros

It was once a great place with good people, just couldn't get it together. The work life balance was really good and the pay was at a good rate.

Cons

Never a complete story from Management. It seems as though there was a hidden agenda and the management could not be trusted. Upper management never had the guts to halt a project if it wasn't ready, we would still push it out the door forceing our customer to take a sub-standard product which hurt us in the end.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest and not gloss things ove.

Pros

You are surrounded by outstanding technical talent, you can make your own career path, you are not limited in advancement if you don't want to manage people.

Cons

Constant downsizing created a very difficult environment to keep teams motivated - moral dropped off further with the bankruptcy.

Advice to Senior Management

The value of your business is your people.

Pros

Great technology. Pretty good teamwork.

Cons

Terrible financial situation, currently under bankruptcy protection (Ch. 11), no faith in senior leadership, unlikely future.

Advice to Senior Management

If Nortel has any future, it will be realized through the great technology and engineering capabilities. Improvement is needed in the ability to decide what technology to invest in, how to create appropriate organizations to successfully promote, sell, develop, maintain and support the technology. There seems to be a loss of contact with reality between the top execs and the engineers. To solve this, a significant re-organisation is needed in the senior leadership ranks, particularly among directors and VPs. Elimination of political empire-building is essential.

Pros

not many of the last few years.

Cons

spiral tumble since the financial scandal, stupid ideas never helped us recover.

Advice to Senior Management

They must puch back to the executives, informing them what is not working, rather than being YES men.

Pros

Flexible work hours has always been the best reason. Pay has been good to.

Cons

Management team has run this company into the ground. While the company had plenty of chances to recover from the Internet bust of 2000, poor executive leadership made mistake after mistake and made this once great company a disaster.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't know what can be done know. They've pretty much screwed this company up and run it into the ground. Too late to tell them of all the mistakes they made from stupid purchases of other companies, departing from the values and prodcuts that built this company and made it once great.

Pros

A player in the cutting edge of technology. Good educational opportunities. The possibility of advancing in management rapidly (if that is your career goal).

Cons

Authoritarian management, sometimes ridiculous work hours, poor place for advancement for purely technical people. If you are not a manager, you are treated as a piece of equipment, to be used and then discarded. Poor quality of products.
Management focuses entirely on deadlines, and products are rushed to market with little or no testing and are consequently of very poor quality. Time that could be spent on doing the job right the first time is instead spent on patching a very flawed program so it works at some minimal level of reliability.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat people as assets to the company, not liabilities. Focus on long-term goals, not just the closest deadline. At this point, however, it may be too late......

Pros

The employees are what keep the company going. There are alot of dedicated people there.

Cons

Industry downturn is difficult and propelling declines for the company. A small degree of nepotism is rampant while lack of accountability on employees is growing.

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to basics. We are not a GE or IBM needing top-line individuals to lay out the plans. Organic innovation helped build this company. Listen to the lower levels.

Pros

A lot of freedom is given to employees. You also have the ability to work from home.

Cons

Company going down the drain. Cost cutting is spreading like a cancer and that is their excuse for everything. Management doesn't really care anymore, to "busy" to care about anything.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to retire, make way for younger more fresh ideas. Mike Z's 5 year plan might as well turn into a 15 year plan. Always excuses for why the company is in the condition it's in.