Research in Motion Reviews in Kitchener, ON Area

Pros

Interesting work, sometimes on the cutting edge. Working hours are flexible and micromanagement is not prevalent. There are not many non-technical managers.

Cons

Poor management, particularly communication from upper management. The vision of the company, if any, is not shared with the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more open with employees. Less "secret" projects. Share vision with employees, be open to creative suggestions from employees regarding future technologies. Be more creative and independent; stop chasing competitors and copying what they have done.

Pros

growth opportunities
initiatives are encouraged
decent salaries

Cons

difficult situation with Apple and android

Advice to Senior Management

care abt the customers

Pros

Interesting work
Talented Engineers
Acceptable pay and benefits

Cons

No opportunity for advancement unless you are from Scotland, Ireland or Celestica
If you work at RIM 8 - you will be micro managed
177 Executives with VP title or higher - Lots of silos
Cocky - we have no competition
Slow reaction to technology innovations
No processes - tribal mentality Co CEO - Co Chairmen same 2 guys - no checks and balances, one spent 3 years trying to buy a pro hockey team while his company tanked.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate once in a while and get rid of some of the 177 millionaire executives with title of VP or higher. Stop micro managing and belittling your senior level employees. Promote from within and stop bringing in ex cronis from past relationships. Put up a suggestion box , you'd be surprised how many great ideas are within the RIM8 Fort Knox walls...

Pros

The salary RIM pays is among the highest in the technology sector in Canada. It is a big and well-known company so having RIM work experience will be beneficial to your future job seeking. Depending on your job position, you either enjoy a stress free work environment or you will, not forced, but feel that overtime is a necessity in order to finish your tasks, this is especially evident if you work with radio stack. A lot of training courses provided by the company, though not available to co-op students, but you get to do them if you are a full time employee.

Cons

People get into the management position because of their seniority instead of technical competency. My team lead could hardly understand what we were talking about without repeating the material multiple times. Our technical lead was hardly of any help when we seek technical advises. She was always busy with something that we do not know about. She did not participate in email discussion much nor did she submit much of code anyways. Management did not know much of what their team members were doing either. During the last round of layoffs, they got rid of a couple of people who were working on some really important stuff yet kept a few incompetent people who did not do much but every time they do, they make a lot of noise to make sure everybody knows.

Advice to Senior Management

Get to know your employee, which one is good, which one is bad and which one is there that you must keep.

Pros

The culture is pretty weird, maybe thats why it had to lay off 2500 people. Depending on the team you get to travel once or twice a year. The salary is decent.

Cons

Management needs to be changed, new faces and new ideas. Needs to give stock options and discounted blackberrys to employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to be changed, new faces and new ideas. Culture needs to be changed and more interaction between different teams and groups. More good looking faces too.

Pros

* Work/life balance - flex hours and very little overtime. You are judged based on the work you do and not your work hours, appearance and other superfluous things.
* Overall competent coworkers and lower management - you get to work with some very bright individuals whom you can learn a lot from. The management of my team and group was fairly well done; whatever issues we've had generally came from upper level. My managers were approachable and listened to suggestions, and tried hard to ensure their subordinates are satisfied.
* Good exposure to relevant mobile technologies - depending on the team you work, you will learn about a lot of standard hardware and software components used in phones and other embedded devices. The knowledge you gain here is transferable to other tech companies working on gadgets. You can learn a lot if you want to.
* Wide impact of the work you do - I worked on smartphone features that are now used by thousands of customers worldwide, which most developers will find gratifying.
* Good benefits/perks - decent health plan (on top of the standard coverage provided to all Ontario residents by the government), subsidies on gym memberships and health-related spending (e.g. fitness equipment), you get a free BlackBerry smartphone and a voice+data plan (Rogers) for the duration of your employment.
* Main campus is in a semi-suburban location, yet still walkable. A good number of restaurants and services are within reach.

Cons

* A lot of uncertainty re company future. Upper management doesn't seem to have definite plans or fails to communicate them with employees.
* Lack of innovation and emphasis on hardware (a variety of devices in subtly different form factors) and market expansion (e.g. third-world countries) as opposed to software and R&D. So you may end up working with outdated technologies. In the past couple years we have consistently failed to deliver on our promises. Generally we're playing catchup with market leaders (Android, iPhone).
* Compensation not up to par with certain software companies in the US (e.g. in Washigton, California). This may not be the case for other (non-software) positions, though.
* Working with third-party vendors can be frustrating: too much bureaucracy and they are often slow to deliver what's required, and you may have to debug third-party solutions.
* Kitchener/Waterloo doesn't have as many activities/entertainment as bigger cities (e.g. Toronto).

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on R&D, in particular coming up with innovative features and improving software quality. Be open and honest about the company's direction. Study competition and market trends. Be willing to invest into hiring first-class developers and designers by providing offers competitive with the US high tech industry, and take staff retention issues seriously.

Pros

You think and work independently. People are friendly. Nice place to develop your skill. Consideration towards family. The proud and philanthropic nature of the CEO/Founders

Cons

They are not geared up to face tough competition from Apple. People are laid back and lack fire in them or killing instincts.

Advice to Senior Management

Please develop new technologies to lure the consumer. Set the fire in the minds of developers. Do follow Apple but offend them with different technology

Pros

Great work/life balance. Nice people, challenging but reasonable workload

Cons

Tight and inflexible teams. No pride in the software/hardware that gets sold to customers

Advice to Senior Management

Too rigid in terms of management styles

Pros

they had good work environment

Cons

Their rotating shift work schedule

Advice to Senior Management

no comments

Pros

Research in Motion has a workforce of talented, innovative people.

Cons

Leadership is not visible or communicative with employees. The egos involved are a shame. What they built from scratch is poised on the cliff, ready to go over, unless they find a way to accept they are no longer world leaders in the space.