VMware Reviews

Pros

Good designers, good managers, flexible hours, creative work and just an easy going atmosphere all around.

Cons

Work from home is discouraged, and it is sometimes difficult to know how to progress.

Advice to Senior Management

Clear career paths and milestones

Pros

Good work and life balance.

Cons

If you want a posted job, it is better to be on the outside. Otherwise, you have to fight for a position and be paid a lot less.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more aware of the employees.

Pros

work with smart, friendly people
stock options (when they used to give them)
beautiful main campus
cutting edge technology

Cons

no career advancement at all
very political - management only hires & promotes their favorites
much too much middle management at the expense of worker bees
work long hours - expected to be on call at all times
constant layoffs
bad infrastructure - very manual tasks cuts employee productivity
hard work is not appreciated

Advice to Senior Management

focus on employees and keeping them engaged and happy
break up the old boy network & upgrade management (executives & directors)

Pros

Recognition of VMware as a company/brand. Great technology.

Cons

Big company mentality creaping in. Lots more politics than before.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognise the work that your staff are doing.

Pros

Strong Brand within industry and very stable Virtrual products.

Cons

Sales leadership is qustionable at best, they take care of themselves and keep underperformers because of buddy system. New Sales Pros come in and get pushed down or out. The sales managers are unethical to customers with ELA renewals. Sales teams are lightweights and can't compete with heavys like HP, MS, IBM. They are stealing partner business by do more direct and less value add.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at your underperformers and at the AVP & VP level of Sales.

Pros

Benefits package is good.
Pay scale is good. Base plus options (now RSUs), bonus package depending on role.
Campus is beautiful.
Work with brilliant people. This point is reducing on a daily basis however as people leave.

Cons

Employee satisfaction is very poor and the company is exhibiting zero concern about it.
Career growth or progress is extremely slow, and in many cases, simply does not exist.
Career equity and promotions vary by a huge margin among teams and business units.
The best people are leaving in droves. They are being replaced with warm bodies, or not replaced at all.
Many managers are simply not qualified to be in their roles.
Employees are not challenged to excel, and those that do excel are given zero recognition or even thanks.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that without your people talent, you don't have a business that pushes the boundaries to create excellent products and lead the market. VMware is sliding towards mediocrity at an alarming rate. Like other very well known Silicon Valley tech giants before us, we have passed the point where the best and brightest are banging at the door to work for VMware. Start-ups and newer companies are taking the best minds straight out of school, and poaching from VMware itself. VMware is no longer the company poaching talent from others.

If VMware wants to stem the flow, it needs to figure out how to take care of its own (and hint: it's not the money). People don't want to work for an employer that does not respect them, does not offer them opportunity, and does not acknowledge their achievements.

Pros

great technology, able to hire great employees in the past, no so good for the recent hires

Cons

weak executives especially for those who got brought in from outside in the recent couple years;

Advice to Senior Management

Stop, stop hiring those directors/VP from other big mediocre (HP, EMC, etc) or loser companies (Brocade, Sun, ...) to lead the company. VMware has been doing much much better than those companies. These people coming from these mediocre companies could not bring VMware forward like before and sustain a very hi PE ratio. At best, if they manage not to drive away all the great people, they could lead VMWare to go down / keep its PE ratio in teens.

Pros

fairly decent benefits
great people
fun campus
well know company in high tech
fabulous technology

Cons

every year executive management changes company strategy
they are doing everything possible to cut cost and sacrifice great talent
HR caps on salary when there are internal promotions - not unique to VMWare
Too many layers of mgmt

Advice to Senior Management

Management should look at how best to leverage their talent pool and not worry so much about the bottom line that they sacrifice great talent

Pros

Great products that work as advertised

Cons

Career advancement and recognition isn't available

Pros

Fast growing, good compensation, energetic environment, culture of open sharing of information and ideas. Culture encourages new ideas and teamwork. The CEO is a strategic genius and is taking the company in the right direction.

Cons

Get all you can on the front end because this company will not promote from within and this is the reason that attrition is higher than you would expect for such a fast growing company. The pay scale is good, but not as competitive as other tech firms. You will need to negotiate going in to remain whole, but it can be done if you are the top candidate.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at the talent within before going outside to hire for promotion opportunities. Need to make significant changes in the sales organization, especially personnel, to be successful in an increasingly competitive environment.