Symantec Reviews in Mountain View, CA

Pros

Benefits are good;
Balanced work and life;
Some interesting technologies;

Cons

Clues yet self-importance leadership;
Bean-counter CFO and cat-n-mouse playful BU leaders;
You are rewarded by who you know not what you know;
Still hugging the old technologies;

Advice to Senior Management

We need a change

Pros

Symantec, at least currently, seems to understand what it is up against in the marketplace and is trying its best to be an R&D and best-of-breed leader. Decent fundamentals are in place to support employees who really want to contribute and not just "make a paycheck." There are some strong senior execs, and the politics, while naturally there are some, seem to take mainly a backseat to the idea that SYMC employees need to row in the same direction for SYMC to survive and perhaps thrive. The culture is relatively flat, meaning that, at least in the US titles aren't that important, which is real important in Silicon Valley (SYMC EMEA though, particularly UK, seems stuck on hierarchy and relatively stuck in neutral therefore).

Cons

IT support, which is outsourced to HP mainly in India, is a disaster. If you can make it by first-line support and get to field support you have a much better chance of getting decent IT. But almost everyone I have spoken to cringes everytime they have to work with primary support. My personal experience is that it is terrible. HR, salaries, benefits are all middle-of-the-road, but, on the plus side, SYMC's size is big enough to move around in order to get exp, but small enough that you don't necessarily get lost in the shuffle.

Advice to Senior Management

SYMC needs to make way more noise about itself, and to ensure that M&A integration is done brilliantly, not just in engineering but out through Marketing and Sales as well. And regional marketing needs to be awaken - seems asleep at the switch at times.

Pros

Company location is good. Easy to get to from all areas.

Cons

For such a large company, the benefits and salary could be better

Advice to Senior Management

Open up the checkbook!

Pros

Good benefits.
Fairly interesting work.
Reasonably stable (ie it won't run out of money)
Pay is not bad.
Recognition is given when deserved, but I guess it depends on your manager/team.
Working for a global company is fun and different!
One of the most decent companies I have worked for, in terms of corporate integrity, trust-worthiness etc.

Cons

Too many products. It is hell if you are in sales. I am not but I feel for them.
Can get a little political, but to be expected in a big company I guess. Its not as bad as some other companies.
Career advancement can be limited if you're in a group whose product is not selling, or viewed as being "mature" (see point #1)
A lot of managers even up to the VP level seem naive and inexperienced, which can be frustrating. This may be to your advantage if you're an old fox.
A lot of ex-Veritas employees have severe morale issues. I don't understand why because our products are still world-class.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be fearful! This is still a great company.
Work on integrating the various products. Security + Storage is a great story but there just hasn't been enough integration work done. If you can't get it done on a reasonable timeline you must split the company to be absolutely fair to your shareholders.
We have way too many products, get rid of the ones that don't make money.
Look carefully at your VPs: most are useless and should be sent out to pasture.

Pros

Good experience with security, storage.

Cons

Pay. Team building around vision.

Pros

Good people
Challenging problems
New technologies
Fun environment
Fair to good benefits
Good training
Free software
Good long term financial incentives

Cons

Poor management
Lack of product strategy
Bad perceptions in marketplace
Stagnant stock price
Limited carreer opportunities
Promotions are rare
Small salary increases and bonuses

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on product development and strategy to differentiate in market rather than single minded approach of growth through mergers and acquisitions.

Pros

Good working environment
Excellent products
Good benefits

Cons

Management changes happened too often at VP/Director levels

Advice to Senior Management

When things went wrong, , figure out the root causes of the problems before making any changes to the organization.

Pros

- Good salary & Benefits
- Good options for flex time
- Consensus driven decision making
- Non-hierarchical

Cons

- Lack of growth opportunities
- Complacent atmosphere
- Consensus driven decision making can stifle progress

Pros

People in other depts are on the whole, good to work with.

Cons

Overwork, no life/work balance in certain finance depts. No meaningful recognition and again, politics are rampant. Certain higher levels of management are stale.

Advice to Senior Management

Lose some of the stale sr. directors who, while they have legacy knowledge, are doing the company worse by causing high turnover due to low morale

Pros

- Good Technology
- Aggressive Accelerators (if you can get to your number)
- Virtual Office set up provides flexibility

Cons

- Horrible morale
- Horrible Management/Employee dynamic. Management doesn't inspire, it intimidates
- Excessive Employee Turnover

Advice to Senior Management

Start to think about why there's been so much turnover in the past couple years (in the Bay) and seriously do something about it.