Palm Reviews

Pros

Start-up environment
Recognition for hard work
Growth potential
Non-political work environment

Cons

Start-up environment causing employees to spread too thin or only work on urgent matters
Product delays

Advice to Senior Management

Release products on time....if not released on time....stop all bonus, stock options etc. for the higher management

Pros

Makers of end-to-end products and good exposure to entire product cycle. Nice place if you are ready to learn and work hard.

Cons

Company is not doing too good so job security is a issue. HP's decisions can be sometimes hard to believe and understand.

Advice to Senior Management

Hp please sell webOS to someone who knows the value of this great OS. Try to work on fewer products and make them competitive .

Pros

Palm is a great company that lost its way. There are great people, great products and interesting and compelling projects.

Cons

I have had almost as many projects cancelled as shipped. It feels like the company is constantly in a state of being bought or sold. Office politics have been extreme at times, but not too bad currently.

Advice to Senior Management

Beef up communications and provide a consistent direction. Get Palm past the current limbo state quickly.

Pros

New technology, cutting edge technology, getting to work with very smart people

Cons

Uncertainty of the job due to market conditions

Advice to Senior Management

Improve on planning

Pros

Significant financial incentives put forth to align teams on transforming company
Significant opportunities for people to step up and lead

Cons

No transparency on company challenges or progress
Understaffed given the challenges facing business

Pros

Brand recognition; some really great, dedicated people working through some difficult situations (i.e. product and software quality was usually an issue which affected many of the customer facing departments)

Cons

Unfortunately management didn't have its attention on some of the key areas that were affecting Palm's reputation and product sales.

Advice to Senior Management

My job was ending just as Rubinstein was coming in and while I was anxious to see how things panned out and if he would make a difference, it seems he couldn't. His product design and new software was obvously a breath of fresh air compared to what Palm had been producing but there seem to have been many of the same hardware/software quality problems that were there before 2007.

Pros

Good in the beginning way before the acquisition from HP. Company was small enough where you were able to have various opportunities.

Cons

Company became way too political and it really depended on your boss. My boss had an inferiority complex and only looked out for her interest. It became more about how much you can kiss up to move forward rather than being a team and working for the company as a common goal.

Pros

Cool concept, good location, massage chairs, free dinners, retention bonuses, strong hardware team, decent cafe, some competent people, great facility management

Cons

Company is doomed. Technology sounds good but is badly executed. No 3rd party applications. Worst management team I ever came across. Rubinstein is an incompetent megalomaniac who thinks everyone but his buddies are lazy. On an ego trip to beat Steve Jobs - good luck with that. Abusive, incompetent management unable to set and execute POR. Awful industrial design. An unmitigated disaster.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop attacking windmills, learn to execute, listen to your customers and business partners, don't abuse your engineers, do one product well, not 10 badly and late

Pros

fellow colleagues are smart and able to work from home by remote access to office software dev env. free tea at the lounge.

Cons

vision for product innovation is mediocre. and marketing dept needs major improvement.

Advice to Senior Management

Palm is part of the large HP corporation. goodluck.

Pros

Great technology, much talent (unfortunately wasted).
Good office space
Potential to leverage HP sales and financial strength, if only management cared

Cons

Most upper management is inexperienced and immature. If you are looking for coaching, career growth, a place to learn, don't bother wasting your time here.

Advice to Senior Management

Resign; you are not interested in doing great things with this technology, let others do it. Get rid of people who manage by fear and empire builders