Symantec Reviews in Mountain View, CA

Pros

Symantec is a very well known name in the industry, and there is a lot of name recognition.
Symantec offered a very good benefits package. Their vision care, in particular, completely astounded my optometrist--he'd never seen such a good package.
Some groups work very well with allowing telework and flex-time.

Cons

Management out-and-out lies.
Management does not communicate effectively with their direct reports.
There is a huge outflow of highly qualified people, and they are being 'let go' for no apparent reason.
The benefits package for 2012 has completely changed, and has dropped to one of the worst that I've ever seen.
The products that the availability side of the house are delivering are, honestly, too little too late. They have an amazing vision of where they want to go with this, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.
It appears as though they are positioning the company to be sold -- cutting costs, cutting benefits, getting rid of "expensive" people.

Advice to Senior Management

If you want to maintain your market lead and grow your business, you need to start making better decisions. You also need to make sure that your company vision is understood and embraced by your employees. It doesn't help if your employees are always wondering why a particular decision has been made.

Pros

- Interesting Projects and Programs
- People
- Management Vision

Cons

- Globalized at the expense of productivity in some areas

Advice to Senior Management

- Keep doing what you are doing

Pros

Pay is decent at symantec and they make products that keep computers safe, something anyone could be proud of.

Cons

Company is massively siloed which results in constant infighting between PMs and departments and plenty of confusion as to what comes out of who's budget. Executing can sometimes be tough.

Advice to Senior Management

It's a good company that's making excellent products, but there's a lot of crossed wires between all the management layers. Symantec needs to run leaner, faster, and smarter to win.

Pros

Well recognized name in the industry and with customers. Big enough company that there are a lot of different areas you can work within.

Cons

Confusing portfolio and strategy with lots of overhead of people that don't do a lot. Acquired companies seem to lose R&D funding to key initiatives and we end up spending a lot of money just 'keeping the lights on' and being just good enough.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline the portfolio and better define the value Symantec provides to it's customer base. Customers see our solutions as lagging the market in terms of innovation.

Pros

A largely comfortable place to work with a nice campus and reasonable compensation.

Cons

In a word, politics.

This is a deeply political organization where your prospects for growth are largely based on who you now and how you work those relationships.

Advice to Senior Management

Less turnover. Annual layoffs and a tendency to eliminate skilled people hurt moral and efficiency.

Pros

Never lacked for tools or resources to get my job done; Symc always willing to send me to classes; talented and dedicated colleagues. I was always proud to say that I worked at Symantec, bringing world-class Norton products to the masses.

Cons

Nimble, they are not. Symc is very process-driven and they operate with minimal staff. Because of this, it was extremely difficult and time-consuming to get simple stuff done.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire some people... you have a good number of really talented, devoted employees who are overworked and underappreciated. Nobody wants to work 50-60 hours per week ALL THE TIME.

Pros

Great benefits & salary (Among the best in the Bay Area)
Good W/L Balance
Excellent career advancement opportunities
Excellent Brand
Excellent training opportunities

Cons

Lack of direction from management
Too many acquisitions with no clear path of integration
Middle management conflicts between departments - need to work together better.

Advice to Senior Management

GREAT COMPANY - KEEP IT GREAT. I had to leave due to relocation and there were no opportunities in Finance in the Dallas area otherwise I would still be there.

Pros

work - life balance
professional development
company's purpose of fighting cyberecrime
growth in needs for company's services
strong brand name

Cons

lacking in planning process
very silo'd
sometimes too beuraucratic
unfair rewards recognition
top management more concerned about personal politics over business success

Advice to Senior Management

be sincere; get more professionl in business planning

Pros

Good work environment
Good Benefits
Overall good culture

Cons

Lack of growth opportunities
Culture of Fear

Advice to Senior Management

Give better compensation, cut costs in the right areas.. do not waste money unnecessarily....

Pros

The company is doing OK.

Cons

The company has lost its leadership in anti-virus market segment.

Advice to Senior Management

The company really need to focus in an important and emerging market segment, and become a leader in that segment.