Palm Reviews

Pros

The people are great. Smart and friendly.
The technology is cool. You can be proud of what you do.
Mobile matters and doing it well is what Palm is all about.

Cons

HP acquisition is a net benefit for Palm, but has introduced a "big company" feel that some people don't like.
Is a company in constatnt fight to stay relevant in a highly competitive industry with dominant established players.

Pros

Cool technology, many smart people around the company, potentially big opportunities to grow the company, the market, etc. Future potential is interesting

Cons

Senior management lives in denial, unwilling to recognize limitations of products, of engineering team, etc. They just need to open their eyes and their thinking a bit.

Advice to Senior Management

You need more than cool technology and patents to win in the marketplace. Take a close look at companies with inferior technology that are winning.

Pros

The number of times this company and its staff have had the patience, energy and spirit to deal with rebirth is amazing!

Cons

Requires resilience, humbleness, don't assume anything, don't expect much, but enjoy the fun while it lasts.

Advice to Senior Management

Some consistancy and constancy would be good. Time to act like a mature business, you can't be a silicon valley start up forever!

Pros

Great benefit, quarterly all hands meeting, great compensations, flexible working hours, allow telecommuncating, open communications from senior management, great people

Cons

A lot of great people left after HP acquisition. Uncertanities within the company directions after post acquisition, loss Palm own image, not sure will survive in a big company like HP

Advice to Senior Management

WebOS is great OS but seems not be able to reach to consumer's hands. Please find a way to reach the product to people

Pros

Great people -- what's left of them.

Cons

Lack of direction from Sr. Management

Advice to Senior Management

Solidify youselves.

Pros

-Positioned as the next apple based on business model
-Potential for growth

Cons

-A lot of the great talent have left for other companies (Apple, Google)

Advice to Senior Management

-Retaining top talent is a concern
-Hiring top talentis a concern

Pros

Lots of fun problems to solve. The company is very easy to move around laterally. You can move teams without being tied to your old work or feature that you developed. Wide range of people, very fun. A lot of very smart people. For the most part, managers do a good job of protecting their team from upper management.

Cons

Put up with some questionable software design decisions from the ivory tower. High turnover. Features are put at a higher priority than getting the system as a whole to perform better.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on getting the system as a whole to perform better. Encourage innovation within the company rather than just trying to keep up with the competition.

Pros

- People are very friendly and helpful.
- It is good to work with many talented people.
- It is fun to work in the mobile device space.
- Learn a lot from the work and coworkers.

Cons

- The company has no directions.
- Management doesn't know what they are doing.
- Many talented people have left for other opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on good planning and execution. It is important not to have project delay again. We also need to improve the quality of the product.

Pros

Palm does try to re-invent itself despite the competitive environment. Palm is located in the center of Silicon Valley, great for people to commute to work.

Cons

Lack of a true leader , competent senior and mid-level managers was the key reason for the company's inability to execute

Advice to Senior Management

Stop bringing your old friends to fill Palm's positions without understand if they can truly produce; management needs to give promotions and raises based on merit not politics and biases.

Pros

-Superb people(atleast when i was there)
-Extremely awesome work,family life balance
-Great work ethic(When i was there)
-Wonderful products

Cons

-You may end up reporting to unqualified,un knowledgeble manager who is interested in going high up the ladder but not increase his personal and professional expertise
-Lots of knowledgeable people leaving
-No knowledge in existing people.All of the people are the ones who got promoted because all the qualified people left one after the other
-Upper management doesn't see who is qualified to be a manager or not based on the number of people leaving the manager..It almost seems like management doesn't care about engineers leaving!

Advice to Senior Management

Keep an eye out for number of people leaving.Its mostly becaause of horrible managers people are required to report to.
Before promoting a person to a manager please take feed back from all the members of a team.And please take feedback to mind