Research in Motion Reviews in Kitchener, ON Area

Pros

Good company with great future

Cons

Managment became unprofessional and destructive.

Advice to Senior Management

Dismiss all the managers who came to the last 3 years

Pros

They pay you really well here at RIM, and the benefits package is also better than average. They are a internationally recognized company and reputable in the telecommunications industry.

Cons

The company culture is lacking. Everyone seems to be there just for work and people in my department are just stressed all the time and take things out by yelling at each other. They also recently axed 1/10 of their employees, the long term prospects of this company do not look good.

Pros

Great benefits, lots of time off. Very casual. Interesting work-context and always in touch with new technology. Probably one of the best Canadian options in the field and your work will affect millions of people all over the world.

Cons

Progress doesn't come easy. Management is short-sighted and the lack of vision is apparent.
The 2 CEOs don't do much good for the company. Seem to surround themselves with sycophants rather than useful talented people who get the job done. As a Developer you will often find yourself spending countless hours writing reports to a bunch of middlemen who are afraid to tell the upper level that this isn't a good idea. Driven by business to a point that ignores basic engineering principles. Quality standard isn't as high as it should be.

Advice to Senior Management

Have vision, design a path for achieving it in detail. Research and innovate rather than catch up with existing technology. You should have switched to android 2 years ago, you should have invested in a touch screen phone 3 years ago. Get with the program, handle yourself as a technological company, keep the edge sharp by constant innovation. You have many smart, talented people working for you that not only are you not encouraging to be creative and innovative but you are also limiting them explicitly from doing so, with legal limitations and narrow-minded protocols for internal development.
You're a tech company. Your engineers will make or break you, not your business side.

Pros

high tech, innovative, global, canadian

Cons

tech industry requiring ongoing new product cycle

Advice to Senior Management

think beyond product and distrubution

Pros

RIM is a Canadian company with some very talented individuals. They hire a lot of interns and is somewhat a youthful company.

Cons

There's nothing really exciting about working in Waterloo, Ontario. The direction of senior management is somewhat concerning and I would really to see more innovation coming out of RIM.

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce the organizational hierarchy for quicker decision making. Local university students see RIM as a last resort for their internship; offer better incentives to recruit the top talent.

Pros

International company. Did a great job a attracting top talents.

Cons

Management. Does a poor job at keeping top talents

Advice to Senior Management

A very generous company that takes care of its employees. Good compensation, great and constantly improving benefits. A good company overall!

Pros

A free Blackberry - that never stops blinking
Ok Benefits
Great friends
Gentle lower level employees who mean well

Cons

I came to RIM after being somewhat recruited from a better paying job. I thought like many it was time to come home to Canada from the US tech valley. But after 1 year I realised I had come home to nothing substantial. The name Research in Motion does not hold up to what actually happens there. It is stagnated and muffled research.

There is an innate egotism of management who lack vision and only factory labourers can thrive there. Never question management! And the company is so clichy it reminded me of a bad high school movie.

Anyone with creative and innovative intellectual thought will be stiffled here. Don't bother - stay where you are. Its a place where there are very short ceilings to success. It is a real modern day factory. Forget about work life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Throw in the white towel. Beg Google, Cisco or MS to rescue you fast. I have seen many patents that were rejected by ignorant Legal teams make it into Android because RIM does not get it or ever will. One more thing: Stop crowing VPs every day. Just because someone has been there are employee number 20 does not mean he deserves that title.

Pros

high exposure in wireless data communcation industry in the past

Cons

Junior managers are incapable, telents turns round rate high, senior management just ask for the "can do" attitude, no punishment of nt meeting the commitment.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employee and the people we will real in charge of a project, set the right expectation and timeline, and manage the commitment---once you said you can do it within X months, i you can not, then should have some discipline.

Pros

it is good, relax, comfortable place to work.

Cons

there is very few training, the communication is not smooth

Advice to Senior Management

sometime, senior manager may need to consider the suggestions from lower level employer, respect their analyst results

Pros

Best company in Canada to work with

Cons

Mobile market is competitive and very challenging

Advice to Senior Management

Need to be particular in hiring process