Novell Reviews

Pros

- I learn a lot about credit analysis and customer service. Also, a safety to other career in the future

Cons

- I do not really like the way it's structured. Sometimes, it takes longer to complete a simple task. !

Advice to Senior Management

- restructure departments and administrative level. I think Novell is a good place in general, but salary for interns is not very satisfying

Pros

- access to technology
- good work atmosphere
- great colleagues, international meetings, training
- good salary, company car etc

Cons

- poor middle-level management
- no perspective for positive changes

Pros

Good Benefits, Nice People & Nice Office

Cons

No communication between senior mang and staff
No idea as to where the company is heading
Senior mang 'out of touch' with staff

Pros

Colleages, work/life balance, great technology, good benefits - though not what they once were - all add up to make it a good place to work

Cons

Comparatively low pay for the sector. All the money seems to be spent on the hundreds of managers, many left over from the "golden years".

Advice to Senior Management

Take whatever Attachmate offer you and give the company a chance for a fresh start.

Pros

Fair pay based on role, ok health benefits, great colleagues, excellent facilities

Cons

Too many overlays of management - Novell has more VPs than Linux servers in the datacenter. There were frequent changing of roles and goals and direction were not clearly defined.

Pros

Good balanced between professional & personal life .

Cons

Minimal scope for technical improvement.

Advice to Senior Management

Appreciation & involvement in techinical aspects can be improved.

Pros

Excellent infrastructure - The campus in Bangalore is fantastic. Good spacious cubicles, lots of meet rooms and conference rooms, high end machines for development and testing, excellent labs, good library, music room, sports

Above average pay - pay is not at all bad, although lot of folks crib about it.

Employee friendly policies - be it transportation or leave policy, subsidised food, work from home option or birthday celebrations, policies are great. You would even like the exit interview process:-).

Real friendly peers - You would never feel alienated.

Good support staff especially finance.

Excellent training - This includes good inhouse training as well as training by outside Novell professionals.

Excellent products with good customer base.

Cons

Managers... wonder how they select them. They are supreme candidates for natural deselection as far as software development is concerned. Being a technical manager is lot more than calling meeting and taking status.

Completely statistics oriented supervisors - how many bugs you found, how many bugs you fixed, how many features you completed, how many days you worked.. phew.. life is just not a number game mate, do you understand the term "quality"?? Do you even care for it? "If you can't fix it in n number of days, then it is not important for customers", this is the philosophy for 90% of them.

Career growth touching nadir - You will find 10 years experience people sitting and fixing bugs months after months. No clue of how to design software or how to implement thing is a better manner. In the name of opportunity what you get is, your life out of frying pan to fire. Promotion is just a new visiting card with new designation. You keep doing the same work.

Limited Recognition - Recognition is only for people who have a loud mouth, their work doesn't matter. Although there are good employee recognition policies company wide, it hardly works at ground level. You sit and work without highlighting yourself, its because that is your job. You talk a lot exposing yourself without even doing your basic stuff, you are a star.

HR supports managers, don't know either by compulsion or intention. The "one on ones" that you have with employees should result in something concrete not a new policy.

Advice to Senior Management

Problem is not your policies, problem is the bunch who implement the policies. Mend them, change them, not the policies.

If somebody is working for you for 10 years, doesn't always mean he is good. It would be also because he was not required anywhere else.

People high up need to have a more than bird's eye view of what's happening down on earth.

Pros

Given the lack of managerial oversight, the "freedom" and "independence" to expand on my skills and role even if management did not acknowledge my accomplishments and achievements.

Cons

Lack of cohesivness and communication within the company. Everyone seems to be in for themselves instead of working together.

Advice to Senior Management

The company was sold and is being split up; what advice is there to give to management?

Pros

Good salary
excellent working environment
knowledge sharing is good

Cons

some middle level managers are not competent enough

Advice to Senior Management

NA

Pros

1. Sharing ideas and collaborating with co-workers is encouraged
2. Management recognizes when someone is doing a good job
3. Great technology that consistently receives fantastic reviews by Gartner, Forrester and IDC

Cons

1. Instability due to rumors about the company
2. Lack of recognition by partners and customers due to weak marketing
3. High turnover

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to reduce turnover and changes in go to market strategy so there is continuity in how Novell approaches customers.