VMware Reviews in San Jose, CA Area

Pros

I mainly work at VMware because of the technology we build. The cloud vision is a great vision and working towards that goal is great.

Cons

The company moves fast, and changes things often. This can be difficult if your experience is mainly with large process-driven companies.

Advice to Senior Management

It is really important to think about culture and hiring standards, both are really important to the long term success.

Pros

Solid systems firm, great opportunity for anyone wanting to hone systems skills. Lot of activity in the various aspects of the cloud (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).

Cons

Rapidly maturing within the virtualization space. Other initiatives not picking up steam as quickly as needed to substitute.

Pros

Flexible working environment - flexibility hours and the ability to work remotely; management is extremely supportive of this
Extremely talented staff; some of the smartest engineers in the industry
Great support from upper management

Cons

Lot of churn in upper management creates uncertainty
Company is growing big really fast; need to be careful to hire the right talent

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure compensation is fair with relation to industry standards
Continue culture of innovation
Continue building talent from within company

Pros

Dynamic, cutting edge technology. Some of the old folks are very smart and have very bright ideas. Main campus is nice and modern with a great gym

Cons

Quite a number of good folks left company recently. New comers bring in different work culture. Inconsistent and unclear direction from above causes confusion and inefficiency.

Pros

1) salary. I was making more than any of my classmates
2) Environment... almost everything was free
3) As an intern, the intern leaders were extremely helpful and supportive and responsive of feedback

Cons

might be hard to get quickly promoted

Advice to Senior Management

Just because they have a near perfect GPA does not mean they are good team players. Hire someone based off their personality not just their transcript... it's only an internship

Pros

Good work life balance, good people, AMAZING food.

Cons

Difficultly communicating between departments. A lot of groups are very secretive about their internal knowledge.
A big company that doesn't have a lot of established protocols, sometimes getting data or processing paperwork can be very cumbersome.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote more openness and communication between departments

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

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.