Sun Microsystems Reviews

Pros

Technical leadership in the industry
Very knowledgeable technical staffs
Good employee benefits
Very respectable by the employers in the industry

Cons

After the dot com bust, the career path in the company became very limited
Some technical staffs turned technical managers had limited management skill and experience

Advice to Senior Management

Spending a large percent of revenue in software research and development, but yet giving away software products for free was not waste of money.

Pros

Sun has some of the best hard ware components that were second to none. The corporate culture is laid back and self managed.

Cons

Was not able to capitalize on a huge amount of technological innovations because the senior management did not identify and encourage the most promising technologies and products.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the market and what will make money. Ensure systems are built right from the ground up.

Pros

Sun or now Oracle has some of the best hard ware components that were second to none. The corporate culture is laid back and self managed.

Cons

During my tenure at Sun Microsystems they did not have any formal training in preparing for the primary responsibilities that were ahead of me. It was such a large campus that my team were scattered all over in different buildings and was quite difficult to get a hold of people.

Advice to Senior Management

Since the merger with Oracle, I strongly believe that Sun is heading in the right direction with the right leadership in place with Larry Ellison.

Pros

Sun was an innovative company, at least at one time. They prided themselves on being great in a new space.

Cons

Did not do well after server market crashed. Did not do well with several mergers. Got acquired by Oracle on the cheap.

Advice to Senior Management

Please have a concrete strategy of where you would like to go when you acquire a company. First, second, and third options would be valuable.

Pros

Were many opportunities in change
Large enough to make moves and learn
Good benefits, good pay
Other employees willing to consult on issues

Cons

It is no more
Lack of focus, no projects were ever cancelled, always adding new ones
Little emphasis on revenue or profitability
No clear goal for the future

Advice to Senior Management

Watch how Oracle focuses on execution
Learn from the past to contribute more in the new company
Take care of employees

Pros

Lots of support and opportunities for career development and training. Very collaborative environment. Very smart people to work with. Hard work with lots of fun times.

Cons

Didn't have the acumen to recover from the dot.com bust. Some poor acquisitions were made. Didn't use Microsoft Office products which was a detriment to the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Projects should have been reviewed for feasibility to bring to market. Investment dollars are precious and too much was wasted on pet projects.

Pros

Great engineering friendly culture with flexibility to move and work on new projects and technologies. Very supportive management and great benefits package.

Cons

It was always easy to start a project but closing anything took the longest time and pretty much was never done easily.

Advice to Senior Management

narrow down the focus to few very profitable areas instead of doing some of everything. Need better accountability at all levels of management.

Pros

- really interesting work - I was on on several great projects
- ability to grow professionally
- ability to engage with people throughout the company
- flexible work schedule / work at home
- lots of vacation time

Cons

In recent times, Sun lost direction. It was unclear where the company focus was. Big projects kept getting cancelled.

With some of my recent work, I had little management support or encouragement - proposals I made were met with skepticism, and with no help in how to improve what I'd done.

Advice to Senior Management

find the right small set of niches this company can do best and stick to that
(too late now)

Pros

Telecommuting/Open Work
Working on new products
Great group of engineers to work with
Work/life balance
Ability to move to different groups

Cons

Poor senior management and no direction.
Too many re-orgs and change of managers.
Highly political environment.
Too many bad managers/directors.

Advice to Senior Management

Put engineers in the correct group not because you don't want to lose the headcount. Quit spending money unnecessarily when it can be spent on hardware that a project needs. Do you really need all those multiple layers of evp/vp/site managers/senior directors/directors/senior managers/managers?

Pros

learn as much as you want

Cons

fragmented strategy for growth in competitive environment

Advice to Senior Management

think smaller act larger and do it faster than your enemy only fight battles you can win take advantage or the waves and current and talk lightly but have a great plan