Symantec Reviews

I have been working at Symantec

Pros – Good work Life Balance
Good benefits
Lots of horizontal growth

Cons – Slow upward growth
No bonuses to new, mid level employees

I have been working at Symantec full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Competitive salary and benefits; HQ office located close to freeway; Security industry is poised to grow and so stock should do well.

Cons – Opportunities for growth are limited. Merit is NOT the top criteria for middle management, connections matter a lot. Company could do better in the Storage space.

Advice to Senior Management – Provide promising career paths to lower level employees. Currently these are severely curtailed, especially at lower levels.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Symantec full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Supports diversity and inclusion. Good benefits and fair compensation. Company is undergoing much needed major restructuring. With that comes a layoffs, re-organizing and hiring of new talent. Seems to be working so far. Time will tell.

Cons – Any major re-structuring, if well-planned and executed is painful and takes time. Seeing people lose their jobs is never pleasant. At least the new leadership is being as thoughtful, considerate, and generous as can be expected.

Advice to Senior Management – Stay the course and don't let the new management slip in to the habits of those before them, cronism, silos, and personal agendas. Ensure the new management have a way to maintain a dialogue with individual contributors to track progress against objectives, keep everyone honest and sustain a delighted, positive, productive workplace.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Symantec as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Good managers, nice office culture, great colleagues,very helpful for the entry level candidates, accommodating environment

Cons – None that I can think of

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symantec full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Forward thinking technology, growing company.

Cons – Squeezed employees all through recession.

Advice to Senior Management – Know what's going on with remote groups.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Symantec as an intern for less than a year

Pros – My hours were from when I got out of school until around 5-6. They taught me everything I needed to know and gave me all the material to learn from. Aside from that, you only needed some experience with the Microsoft Office suite

Cons – My boss was the worst part. Learn to get on their good side, fast.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symantec full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – It was a good place to work

Cons – No particular problems at this

Advice to Senior Management – No particular problems with management

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symantec full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Symantec offers the market solid technology - from security to storage. The Norton portfolio continues to be well received by the consumer marketplace. Brand awareness is higher for Norton than for Symantec.
There are many opportunities to make a difference at Symantec - only requirements - your initiative and the support of your manager.

Cons – The company is going through a massive reorganization which has crippled the momentum in a number of groups. This reorganization would appear to be more about cost cutting than streamlining and resetting the company for innovation and growth.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize the turmoil caused by the reorganization and the inability to prioritize markets and investments. Engage with employees and you'll find that they want to be productive and successful - but they need management to shift from an internal to external focus.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symantec full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great peers, excellent benefits, brand recognition on your CV.

I made some great contacts within the industry at Symantec, and the campus is very nice. At the headquarters, the cafe is very nice, the onsite gym has what most people need, and they support EV charging at the main parking structure.

The entire campus is tobacco free, which is nice for nonsmokers, but banishes the smokers to the sidewalks, even in the rain.

Cons – Politics, Management ignorance, and leadership failures across the board, "Take initiative" is verbally encouraged and punished if not successful.

Internal processes are disorganized, and politics wins the day when it comes to budgetary approvals. Information flows are weak, and management training is very poor.

Outsourcing has resulted in the usual problems: meetings at odd hours, unintelligible accents on the phone, and blamestorming when something goes wrong.

Advice to Senior Management – Integrate the businesses. This is an amalgamation of businesses, when it should be an enterprise. Stop outsourcing so much: without a stake in the game, there is no ownership, and the profit motivation for making mistakes is astounding: They get paid for making the mistake; for covering up the mistake; for arguing about the mistake; and, finally, for correcting the very same mistake.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symantec full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Opportunities to contribute abound
Mission of internet security/availability/storage
Still some great people here around the world
Brand & Technology Leader

Cons – New leadership is passing out Kool-Aid and all must drink it.
Long, hard hours with changing direction at leadership whims
bit command and control - highly political

Advice to Senior Management – Ensure diversity of thought

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company