Research in Motion Reviews in Ottawa, ON Area

Pros

Fast paced development, enjoyable environment, interesting and rewarding products.

Cons

Lacking communication and collaboration between teams

Pros

One of the biggest high-tech companys in Canada after Nortel was down
It was growing very fast

Cons

It is going down, not sign to stop

Advice to Senior Management

Take care

Pros

The company has good work environment

Cons

Hard to grow in corporate hiererchy

Advice to Senior Management

create ways for new people

Pros

Money is ok. Free phone (whoop).

Cons

Terrible managers.
Huge bureaucracy - tons of boastful process documents about "performance management" and "competencies" and then when you play by their rules and do a great job, your manager agrees to everything you asked for - and then you sit and wait for the VP, in a different city, to give a crap and let you know whether you deserve to get it.

90% plus of my time on configuration management, data crunching, materials and sample request chasing - after getting recruited here from a Project Lead job at another blue chip company, after 10 yrs of project management in global projects - stuck here collecting people's samples.

And all I can do is leave - and with the economy in the crapper, basically my choice is to just do this for now - kill my eyesight plowing through spreadsheets, get used to shipping devices to various users, chase materials. What else can I do until I find something better? The VP just doesn't want to act like I'm anything but a number - like a number way too far down the food chain for him to even address (like number 356.9.2.1.3).

Advice to Senior Management

audit performance and hr practices of every single group.
stop promoting people because their age starts with a 4 - this isn't a bus company.

Pros

very good team environment (if u are in the right team)
good icecream on fridays
good team events for the groups
travel opportunties if you are in the right team
the IT group is quick if you have problems. most problems get solved with 2-3 days.

Cons

-> can get lost sometimes with work from different people
-> u have to spend first for travel and then get reimbursed. it would be better if there was a company credit system. They do exist but not for everyone.

Advice to Senior Management

involve fulltimers more and promote them quicker

Pros

Great beautiful city to work and raise a family. This is a 9 to 5 job. Although you do sit in a cubicle, it is not the mundane type of office job. Most of the Engineers here love what they do. It is also not like Microsoft or Google or most other technology companies. You will not get over worked to the bone. Everyone has a family. Most people are former Nortel employees and are old enough to have a young family. They respect your time.

Cons

Compensation is not very good.

Advice to Senior Management

Better bonuses!!

Pros

Entrepreneurial company, great technology and innovation. The company does make an effort to be competitive in benefits, pay and work environment, in a somewhat systematic sort of way. Great buzz, tech darling in Canada, etc.

Cons

Typical bureaucratic problems of growing companies; excessive politics within management silos, far too many top-down processes are a result of empire-building and jockeying for position;middle management doesn't really walk the walk as far as career growth, though the HQ generates all sort of nifty-sounding HR policies and guidebooks.

Advice to Senior Management

Execute one operational vision for hardware and one for software - make the VP's fall in line.