Sun Microsystems Reviews

Pros

Good technology
Good engineers
Pride in Sun brand

Cons

Miserable morale
Lack of leadership
Poor communication

Advice to Senior Management

Find leadership and communicate

Pros

Sun had some of the best technologies and was a place where you could always find support for new ideas.

Cons

Sun was very disorganized. Like all large companies whole portions of the company were ignorant of each other. It was impossible to connect the sales teams with customers, resulting in often frustrating customer visits.

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with coordinated leadership and understand how to sell the awesome products you already have. Don't simply pawn off your issues; recognize what does -- and doesn't work.

Pros

Great training and development for employees, great flexible work arrangement, encouraged risk taking, strived for transparency

Cons

Poor Senior Mgmt that lead to the company being acquired, performance did not always decide salary especially when budget was scarce last 3-4 years before being acquired, a lot of buy-in to get anything done.

Advice to Senior Management

Too late for this company!

Pros

Great Products
Great People -- Very bright, on balance very dedicated
Respect for Job well done.

Cons

Like all companies there was some dead wood that just baffled the mind!
Upper Management ran the company into the ground.

Advice to Senior Management

Please tell us all where you are going so we can avoid going to those companies. Riding one ship down the drain is enough for one lifetime!

Pros

Working on cutting edge of technology, and the sr technical staff available, to help you make decisions are fantastic. Great work culture too

Cons

Sr. Management makes decisions that are not data driven

Advice to Senior Management

More data driven decisinos

Pros

This is a good company for fresh graduates. Big company, nice training, learned a lot during the first two years.

Cons

Management is not so impressive. The problems with big company is the management. Anyway, it has been bought by oracle, maybe a good news to employees.

Advice to Senior Management

I guess no more advice, since now there is no Sun Microsystems. Just hope after it was purchased by oracle, they can make their technology a money machine.

Pros

Great technological abilities in the past;
A lot of smart people who were forced to leave or made right decision themselves and left
Huge potentials for advancements in leading technologies like Unix and Java

Cons

Imbecilic management, too afraid of making a decisions on themselves with bowing to a next in the chain of command
Paralyzed will to make any changes
Management is flying low and ducking at the first sign of a trouble
All valuable people left this rotten carcass a long time ago

Advice to Senior Management

Step out and go sweeping the streets - this is the best you're able to do. Most of the managers left in the company after 2001-2003 layoffs are disgrace to the profession.

Pros

They give you a salary well worth your time and the environment is very friendly. They have some new and interesting technology they let you play around with.

Cons

Unfortunately as soon as Sun Microsystems got bought it our department was removed.

Advice to Senior Management

They needed to focus more on technologies beside just consulting on Java software and all the other Java aspects. Sun used to be a great technology leader but bad marketing and business relations destroyed them (see Motorola).

Pros

some of the smartest people I've ever worked with
great products
positive work environment -- respect for all employees

Cons

financial performance over the past 10 years, thanks to mismanagement by CEO

Advice to Senior Management

they should never have hired Jonathan Schwarz, and the board should have FIRED him before selling the company

Pros

Flexibility of work situation, very intelligent co-workers, innovation was a way of life, as was having a good time. I'll miss the place.

Cons

Sun was a special place from a certain place in time. The tech industry is a less interesting place with Sun gone.

Advice to Senior Management

Next time, hire some real business people to run the company, and focus your energies on being technologists. Enjoy your severance packages.