Novell Reviews

Pros

The Tools & Services branch of Novell is extremely flexible with their employees. If the people I worked with were any less driven and dedicated I would say too flexible.

We largely get to set our own schedule, we can work from home whenever we feel the need (within limits, obviuosly), vacation time, sick days, and holidays are all handled by a single paid time off structure that is VERY flexible (basically I have 30 days off a year, which I can use as I see fit). It all basically runs off of an 'honor' system: Let your co-workers know in advance if you can, get your work done, and you wont get bothered. If the people I worked with were any less dedicated and responsible it would be TOO much flexibility. But they aren't. My immediate co-workers work hard and have a desire to get their work done, so the sytem works great.

The projects I work on are interesting, and I have a lot of control over the design process, which is an unexpected perk for a recent graduate. I am responsible for several projects, and as long as get keep up on them I have a lot of control over how and when I work on them.

My boss is a great guy who really looks out for those under him. He firmly believes that a happy employee is a productive one, and is willing to fight with HR for us. From the departmental director down there is a lot of support and cooperation.

Cons

Novell is a BIG company with all the negatives that entails: Lots of red tape between departments and having to navigate complex inter-departmental politics to get anything done. In my team we are constantly having to work around artificial limitations and find loopholes to get things done. Often time we only own half the code we are working on and have to come up with complicated solutions to pass data around, other times we are working on solving bugs (sometimes major ones) and hit a dead end when we start intersecting other departments projects. You can make a report to have them fix it, but it typically just slips between the cracks.

HR and accounting are really disconnected from the rest of the company, which is why Novell has a bit of a reputation for yearly layoffs. My manager is very willing to fight for us and works hard to make sure we are fairly compensated, but it is still a fight, and it really shouldn't be.

But the grounds are beautiful, the people are enjoyable, there are lots of teambuilding activities (real ones, that actually help me get to know the people I work with and have a positive impact), lots of flexibility, and just a good general atmosphere.

As long as you are dealing with just your department, it is an amazing place to work. And even when dealing with other departments is just a minor annoyance.

And not all departments are a well managed as mine. Support (just across the hall) can be hellish.

Advice to Senior Management

There is too much of a disconnect between HR, accounting, and the rest of the company. They can be great at paying well at hire, but getting raises shouldn't be such a battle.

Outsourcing your support is killing you. ICS (the company we outsource most of our support to) is a mess and bleeding employees. Bring it back in-house and give those poor support engineers the support they deserve.

Pros

1. Good Products.
2. Good infrastructure.
3. Free transport
4. Unlimited sick leaves :)
5. Good benefits for employees.

Cons

1. Bad Management
2. No growth.
3. No freedom of opinion.
4. Not open to changes.
5. In -secured employees.
6. POLITICS
7. Biasing based on language, region, personal liking etc..

Advice to Senior Management

GROW UP!
GET TRAINED!
USE YOUR BRAINS!
PLEASE ACT BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!

Pros

* has outstanding software technology in many IT areas
* has eDirectory and Identity Management solution that is above the rest in the marketplace
* The SLES OS, Novell Cluster Services on Linux and Business Continuity Clustering on Linux software is top notch

Cons

But with all this great software technology needs to be a great marketing to IT professionals and IT management. Novell has a very hard time getting the word out what they have to offer in the IT space. This is the soar spot I have seen, since working at Novell. I have been with this company for over 10 years. If we could only get the message out there what we have and how better it is to the competition, we could be a better known company in the IT space.

Advice to Senior Management

Marketing

Pros

1) At an individual level most of the Staff are great; very personable and hard working.
2) Because of the relatively small size of the company currently, it actually creates a more relaxed, 'non-mega-corp' atmosphere as people appreciate the importance of getting on with it, rather than concentrating on 'empire building'.

Cons

1) Career advancement is, shall we say, limited as the company could be dissected rather shortly. 2) Because of financial constraints, pay rises are sadly aspirational
3) Sometimes, one get the impression that a lot of the corporate policies were written when the company was rather larger and rather more ponderous and not trying to fight for its very existence!

Advice to Senior Management

Re-branding existing products with pseudo-clever topical names hardly justifies multi-million dollar salaries and bonuses while fooling nobody in the market for software! One gets the impression that instead of a clear plan that senior management is trying to 'back every horse in the race', in the hope that one will come home a winner!!!

Pros

Great thing about Novell as a company is Its True Employee Friendly Environment.

Employees are very co-operative and understanding. More over very helpful to each other when the need arises.

Technology learning could be one option if one is not loaded with lot of work and focus on self learning.

One would learn different technology and domain.

Cons

I would blame all on Management: Especially Indian Mgmt.

Some of these Manager and management team doesn't understand technology that Novell work on. Some time take advantage of best resource to gain higher position.

Timely recognition is missing and some time we have to fight to get these which is impractical.

"HR team is Manager friendly."

Some of the Manager are new and try to experiment on you, when things are not going their way they seek HR help.

Advice to Senior Management

"Get Trained"

To higher management: Losing best resource will loose your competition in market. Some of these have high respect for Novell. Protect them to protect yourself.

Pros

Decent pay (for an internship in Provo), flexible hours, nice facilities (loved having an office instead of a cubicle)

Cons

Basically, everyone in my team had been laid off and rehired (or brought in as a contractor) like 3 times. The place is extremely unstable when it comes to having any career prospect

Mid-level managers and engineers aren't in the same page, and young starlets do not get enough attention or guidance (and take the brunt when something goes awry). Don't expect help from other engineers or developers (you are a nuissance).

If you have been laid off: you will not be formally notified. You will come to work one day and your access card will not work. Then you will be notified by phone that you need to make an appointment with a security guard to get your stuff from your office, and thank-you-very-much.

Advice to Senior Management

High-level managers: people are your main assets. Massive layoffs due to irresponsible risk taking are your fault.

Mid-level managers: take responsibility for training your people.

Pros

The projects being done in Novell India were very interesting ones; they involved core development, and had non trivial design challenges.

Cons

Opportunities to visit the US are limited; compensation is not the best, and management is not as technical as one would like.

Advice to Senior Management

I do not have any advice for current management since I'm not familiar with them. I had left the company before they took over.

Pros

Good benefits, smart people, fast paced industry.

Cons

Limited opportunities long term. Decreasing revenue stream. Likely to be acquired.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent. Be much more decisive.

Pros

The people at Novell are some of the smartest, most passionate for success, and solution-minded you'll ever meet. I would gladly work with most of them again without hesitation. Plenty of technical resources and internal infrastructure, and employee support to go around. Engineering still makes some of the best technical solutions on the market!

Cons

Depending on the particular external customer/partner segment you work with you will likely encounter strong "Novell" brand affiliation with traditional NOS products... even though the solutions of today's Novell are VERY different. Environment, despite being about 3500 employees, has the process culture of a 20,000 employee firm. It frequently slows down the work engine. The value of marketing seems to be under-valued by the executive team... Great products and solutions - but relatively few know Novell offers them.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more agile and flexible... stop being so rigid around process for the sake of process. Focus on the short AND long term goals to get the winning momentum. Marketing is still not as strong or focused as it needs to be.

Pros

Novell is good about giving employees time off for family matters. It has been a great place to earn a living and be able to spend time with my family outside of 8 - 5.

Cons

Sometimes it feels as if there is no direction. Too many competing focuses. Things that were top priority suddenly are on the bottom.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate better with the people that do the work. Simply saying that we are switching direction doesn't work. Communicate the why behind it.