Proofpoint Reviews

Pros

Smart People
Interesting technology
Great CEO
Cloud computing

Cons

Booking travel and expense reports

Pros

Great office environment, Company culture - Innovative, fun, creative, team players. The opportunity is very big, room for growth.

Cons

Manual processes. The good thing is they are working on automating as we expand in our fast growing state.

Advice to Senior Management

x

Pros

Proofpoint is dedicated to the growth of its employees and its products, and hence has seen a lot of success. As Proofpoint continues to succeed new opportunities are opening everyday.

Cons

Since Proofpoint is relatively new and still growing, the market share and brand awareness is not as strong as some of our competitors in the space.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue the strong push to hire the best and the brightest. We have a good group of people who are knowledgeable and driven which makes working at Proofpoint fun as well as rewarding.

Pros

I came on as an intern in the marketing department. The internship program was blast. You can definitely tell that this company believes in hiring the best. All of the interns were extremely talented and easy to work with and from casual conversations with them; all of them were paid well above average. As an intern, I got to meet and talk with all the executives during scheduled lunch sessions.

After the internship ended, I stayed on part-time throughout the school year and was allowed to work flexible hours. I even got to work from home if I wanted to... and I was an intern!

Management allowed me to work on various projects within marketing and even allowed me to make up my own projects which I never had a chance to do in my previous internships.

There is a great vibe going on in the marketing department and overall and a very positive outlook for the company.

If you get a chance to intern here, take it! The pay is great, they really take care of you, and half of the interns stayed with the company after the program.

PS. This company competes with all the big boys and and is some how winning against them: Google, Microsoft, Cisco, Symantec, Intel.

Cons

-Marketing and engineering are no longer in the same building
-There aren't a lot of good restaurants around
-The best closest routes are 101 and 237 - both are heavy in traffic.

Advice to Senior Management

Expand Proofpoint more in the mobile market. There is a potential gold mine there. Jump in before it's too late.

Pros

Good work-life balance (most FT employees get 3 weeks vacation right away) Pay is competetive for most positions I have seen. People here are great. I am not micromanaged here like I have been in the past. The company outlook is very strong in both expansion and revenue growth.

Cons

management does not always communicate well, but it is no different than anywhwere else I have been. This company adapts well and learns from their mistakes. But the positives here outweigh any negatives

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to expand globally. We are making waves in Europe and other areas- this will do nothing but help the overall health of the company.

Pros

Fair pay and benefits
Great people
Quality products
A focus on innovation

Cons

Communication is sometimes foggy
Lacking a well defined channel strategy

Advice to Senior Management

Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals need to be communicated better from upper management throughout the entire company. It feels as though these important messages are delegated and the meaning is lost when they finally reach employees in the trenches.

Pros

Company growth and overall attitude of employees and customers of Proofpoint. The company cares how it's employees feel and has a lot of recognition when employees meet or exceed expectations.

Cons

Company size is a issue when in sales role, enterprise companies always look at the little guy last. This will not be an issue once the company goes public.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to make channel more of a focus moving forward.

Pros

As an engineer, I love thorny technical problems, and proofpoint provides the opportunity to work on some very interesting ones. Management team does a good job of listening and accepting employee feedback.

Cons

Project thrash -- difficult to know whether what one is working on this month will still be relevant six months down the line.

Advice to Senior Management

Figure out the couple of key things important to the company's success, and focus on those few things until they are well and truly done.

Pros

Even though it's 9 years old, there's still a lot of a "startup" feel to Proofpoint because of the company's continued fast growth -- with all of the attendant pluses and minuses. I came to work at Proofpoint and continue to enjoy it for the following reasons:

* Awesome CEO who leads by example and works very hard to create a culture of respect, cameraderie, integrity and commitment to customer satisfaction.

* Some extraoridarily smart and committed people -- both old-timers and new hires -- work here.

* Some very interesting technologies underlying the products, ongoing development involves many of the most buzzworthy tech trends (machine learning, big data, virtualization, cloud computing, etc.)

* Challenging work across all departments. Fast-growth and an ever-changing market keeps things varied. Great for self-starters, not good for folks who prefer to simply stay in their comfort zones

* For those that are willing, there's a lot of "choose your own adventure" at Proofpoint. There's a lot of opportunity to innovate, do something a new way, try a new approach.

* Pre-IPO, venture-funded company that has established itself as a leader - and the last "independent" company - in its category.

* Great "blue chip" list of customers, many of whom are rabid fans.

Cons

On the flip side, Proofpoint's not a big enough company to offer "something for everyone". Proofpoint is probably not a good fit for employees who don't have at least a little bit of "self-starter" or "entrepreneurial" bent.

Like many companies its size with similar growth trajectories, one might feel more resource constrained at Proofpoint than one would feel at a much bigger (or much smaller) company. The tension between what one would like to accomplish and what one has the resources to get done is often magnified in an organization like this.

Other (to me, minor) downsides:

* Enterprise security & compliance isn't exactly the sexiest marketspace.

* As with any company, one's experience is highly dependent on one's immediate manager. I've had both excellent and not-so-excellent managers in my time here, just as I've had excellent and not-so-excellent employees. YMMV.

* Benefits are probably just "average", but I'm more of the startup type and don't pay attention to this sort of thing.

* Very customer-driven and sales-oriented organization might not be to everyone's liking.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management team is definitely stronger than ever. Continue working to keep decisions at the top and company direction as transparent as is possible. Encourage managers to "catch their people doing something right" more often.

Pros

Benefits, the people, the job itself, the compensation

Cons

They do not allow you to do a PTO/Vacation cash out for X number of hours.

Advice to Senior Management

none