VMware Reviews

Pros

- Interesting projects
- Excellent compensation
- Great opportunity for growth
- Smart people
- Modern development techniques and use of best practices
- Company is rapidly expanding

Cons

Due to rapid growth, VMware is undergoing some noticeable growing pains, however I am confident that these will be resolved.

Pros

- some of the best products in enterprise software, although
lack of focus on them means the competition is catching up.

- amazing engineering team, at least the old guard on the main
virtualization products.

- The company is making so much money from the cash cows that
compensation and benefits are now pretty good.

Cons

The company has lost its way.

- crazy and continuous management changes

- tons of VP's who don't know what they are doing and have been
recently hired and don't do anything or screw things up.

- Morale is at an all-time low, even after some of these lousy executives have
been fired in the most recent changes a few months ago.

- They need to fire more VP's, but it is not clear that they (the CEO and the
"new" SVP's of vSphere) have the guts to do that, or even a clear notion of
who is good or bad, and why.

- Promotions make no sense.

- Nobody feels that what they do will make a difference.

- New managers are hired in who are not qualified, not hard working,
and are simply yes men and petty bureaucrats.

- The passion and pride which brought us to greatness are being systematically
crushed out of the company.

- The CEO and the execs have gone on a wild goose chase after "the cloud".

Advice to Senior Management

Paul Maritz will eventually be seen as the John Sculley of VMware for
taking a great company and letting it devolve into mediocrity.

Joe Tucci (CEO of EMC, our parent company) fired Diane Greene,
the founding CEO, and put Paul in her place, ostensibly to put in a more
"seasoned" CEO to guide our next stage of growth.

The only way that I imagine VMware will be saved is if Joe Tucci wakes
up and looks past the stock price (pumped up by cloud hype) and the
revenue growth (driven by legacy products) and sees that the new
emperor he put in place has no clothes, and go back and beg Diane and
Mendel to return and save VMware like Steve Jobs came back and
saved Apple.

But somehow, I don't think that's going to happen.

Pros

Work life balance is excellent. When my day is over no one expects me to answer a phone call or reply to an email. VMware GSS hires mainly by cultureand as such we have a great team of people to work with. Compensation is fair and the benefits are great.

Cons

I work from 10 - 7 PM - would like more classic hours. It has not always been clear regarding what needs to be done to move up the career ladder here. We are busy!

Pros

Great technology
Talented people (although many are leaving)
Beautiful campus

Cons

Company ignores employee feedback
Incompetent directors and senior directors
Unethical conducts from some of the directors
Internal transfers are difficult that limits the opportunity for growth
No work and life balance
No recognition, no employee empowerment
Morale is very low
Inefficient internal tools and systems that reduces employee productivity
Management has favorites and demonstrates favoritism
Micro Managing
No personal development plan
Too much politics
Broken processes

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to employee feedback
Improve the director layer, weed out those who have no soft skills, those who threaten employees and manage by fear
Make internal transfers easier

Pros

- Still has some good technology (vSphere is still on top, but perhaps not for long)
- Might look good on a resume
- Pay is OK.

Cons

VMware is almost entirely reliant on legacy products which are losing their niche fast. Competitors are catching up and VMware needs somewhere to go to differentiate. They have bought several promising technologies (Zimbra, Socialcast, SlideRocket, Horizon App Manager, Horizon Mobile) but they are not investing enough to keep them abreast of the competition. Management is entirely, 100% focused on revenue and becoming a $4B company - and the cuts show. Raises are next to nonexistent (even for internal promotions, which are rare.) Employees who used to have their cell phones taken care of by the company now have to "Bring Your Own Mobile" (this was billed as a great benefit to employees, but in reality we now have to purchase our own phones and pay for our own plans, with an entirely-to-small cap on what we can expense for monthly costs.) Rumor is they will be doing the same with laptops in the future, without giving employees any money towards purchasing their own computer. Within the next year, they play to eliminate vacation and sick leave (rather than earning leave, you will just "work it out with your manager" - I can only imagine this will cut back on the amount of vacation you can take.)

Upper management has a decent vision but it is crippled by the all-encompassing focus on revenue. The company has a whole slew of useless VPs (many brought in and given lofty titles due to acquisitions.) Middle management is largely incompetent yes-men who are focused on managing upwards - a lot of them have been with the company for a long time or were part of acquisitions, so they are just "resting and vesting." Until a lot of them are sidelined or fired, I don't foresee much improvement. The market has started to realize that the company is all glitter but no gold, and the stock price is being adjusted to reflect this.

Advice to Senior Management

This company has a BILLION AND A HALF DOLLARS in the bank. Spend it to enhance products that need it so they can compete in the market, and put a little towards improving employee morale (which is in the gutter.)

Pros

Current industry leader - hot sector
Brand recognition within technology

Cons

Political, zero integrity of some senior leaders, lack of trustworthiness, low employee morale, mass exodus of outstanding talent. It's just not worth it.

Advice to Senior Management

Weed out the bad apples at the top - still there and they're bringing you down, rotting morale, your reputation and your ability to maintain successful, sustainable growth.

Pros

- Good salary & perks.
- #1 products on the market.
- You get to work on very new technology (if you're in the good teams).
- Great campus & cafeteria.
- Some very good engineer still there (even though they are all leaving).

Cons

- Absolutely no recognition. You are a "resource", here to fix bugs.
- Promotion are entirely left to your manager. Ancient dinosaur engineers are at highest ranks while they don't contribute, young talents do all the work and remain very low for years.
- Lots of talking, no acting. Internal polls show lots of discontent but nothing ever changes...
- ...besides the entire management chain which is reorganized every 6 months. Huge waste of time & money.
- Nobody wants to take the lead on some tasks. Bug threads are like hot potatoes going from a person to another and nobody wants to burn its hands (who can blame them given the lack of recognition).
- Some incompetent people can't help the company and to keep themselves entertained they just spend their time making your life harder. Endless reviews, extra (long) approvals, small inter-team wars. Basically everything to prevent you from having a decent time.
- People leaving this sinking company at light speed.

Advice to Senior Management

- Eradicate those bad-spirit people, including in the management.
- Please give a chance to young engineers. Some of the best people in the company ARE junior engineers and are left behind.
- Ease the review process. Because you are a junior engineer doesn't mean you don't know what you are talking about and you need input from some of those incompetent senior leftovers...
- Stop favoritism in promotions.
- Stop those yearly/bi-yearly reorgs. They are not making any difference.

Pros

Great technology and opportunity to learn.

Cons

Nobody is working for vmware, they are working for themselves.

Advice to Senior Management

Please work for vmware

Pros

Cutting edge technology,
challenging problems,
less red tapes when it comes to equipments or processes.

Cons

politics,
root attitude of some employees.
close groups.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a management training, acquire soft skills and then become managers.
Don't encourage politics.

Pros

No time restrictions, flexibility of work

Cons

Poor management and lack of communication from higher authorities to lower ones

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure every level in management is taken care off