Palo Alto Networks Employee Reviews about "company is growing"

Pros

- Company mission is bullet proof and the products are doing well in the market - Stock price is continuing to perform well - CEO is committed to the cause and genuinely seems to care about the people in the company

Cons

- Management/executive leadership has been promoted within and is not necessarily skilled in how to move a company of this size forward - Management/Executive management is out of touch with the people and what the culture IS versus what they say it is - There are very few promotions from within for key roles and they continue to bring in people from the outside - career paths are limited - HR is not playing their position well - HR Business Partners are more concerned with managing up than representing the employees/people - When employees are brave and courageous enough to do the right thing and speak up and share their opinions (open door policy?) they are the labeled as negative and more often than not that ends their growth within the company - Managers (Directors, Sr Directors, etc) have inappropriate behavior and that is not handled with rigor

Pros

Very smart people who all genuinely believe in the product and want to make the company successful. Though large (roughly 2.5k employees), still feels like a startup, and creativity is very much encouraged.

Cons

Work/life balance isn't great, you will find that you have to work hard to balance the two. The company is growing so fast that aligning with different departments on projects is becoming more difficult to do.

Pros

The working population at this company come from a large section of strong silicon valley companies. The diversity in skills that this provides to Palo Alto makes this one of my favorite places to work. There is a lot going on, but I've found leadership to really trust and empower the team to get it done. What I love - Strong position in the marketplace. A great foundation for growth and acquisitions that will provide inroads for new products and more revenue. - Leadership is more diffuse than other places I've worked. What I mean is that many of these leaders have been running their own companies and therefore they know ideas that will provide value and, in the SRE space, are driven to eliminate redundant tedious work. - People I see are very respectful for each others work - Pager duty is not bad - Great perks at the company - People I work with are driven and want to gain visibility for the company so we can attract the best

Cons

- There have been regrettable departures across many teams and that has hit morale - Collaboration needs to improve with development and product

Pros

Fast pace means there is never a dull moment. Being part of such a successful company is challenging but fun. High Growth bring huge opportunities internally to work on exciting projects and progress your career. People are fantastic, intelligent and willing to help out. You get the feeling everyone is pulling in the same direction to become the number one Cyber Security company in the world. Great mission to protect our way of life in the digital age give you a sense of purpose. Company has a high integrity and I see negative behaviour dealt with rather that ignored. Down to earth approachable people throughout the company right up to the very top. No blame culture, instead when mistakes are made they are learned from and improvements are made. Huge opportunity still ahead. I have been here 5 years and despite the massive changes I have seen almost all of them are positive.

Cons

The pace of the company and quantity and quality of work expected means expectations are high and this isn't the right company for everyone.

Pros

Great team vibe and amazing to be part of a company that is changing an industry.

Cons

I really can't think of any - it's not a place for the faint hearted!

Pros

The name is what carries the weight here because it is Palo Alto Networks. You can put it on your resume and in the world of cybersecurity, it will help you get places. Definitely a blue blood in the space. Company is doing well and the stock is going up but that is true for cybersecurity in general. For Palo Alto, it is more due to the engineering team itself than the sales team. Product practically sells itself. Even for the cons I am about to right, it might not be the case in other regions as this is specifically for the Northeast territory.

Cons

This is just for the Northeast territory but it is bro culture personified with a lot of incompetence added in. Leadership does not know what they are doing, the people who do hit numbers do it through luck or getting easier leads that even marketing can close, and there is some serious prejudice going on. I spoke to some of the leadership at social events and in a more informal basis, racism and prejudice definitely run strong in the bro culture. Poor treatment given to people of color that apply to roles and some of the things said off the record resemble a YouTube comments section rather than how a modern-day business world should be. The tragedy is that leadership is selected based on favoritism and nepotism, not how well they can do the job. Get off on yelling at people, offer no solid coaching, play favorites, constantly gossip, waste everyone's time, and have made it a poor atmosphere to even develop a career.

Pros

Interview process was a major selling point - I spoke with 8-10 people throughout the process, and clearly each and every one of them /wanted/ to be working there (as opposed to the certain percentage of 'just here for the paycheck' folks I've seen at other companies. Management is truly listening and responsive. Personal integrity and initiative are highly valued - if you see a problem (even outside your particular area of responsibility), you'll have full support in driving to fix/improve it. Executive staff is committed to the company goals (and very much to maintaining the culture). This isn't just lip service - their actions show how important this is as the company grows.

Cons

A maximum of three weeks of PTO was a little difficult to manage - though this policy has recently changed to eliminate this issue.

Pros

I have worked at some amazing companies with amazing people. And Palo Alto Networks is by far the best job I have ever had and THE best company. I get to work with super talented and vry respectful people. I have found at previous companies it's hard to find people and management who are super talented but yet still respectful to all employees, coworkers, management. Here each and every person is treated with respect. Your opinions matter here. Your hard work is recognized here. Your value is consistently recognized here. And it's a great group of smart a**es that make me laugh every day. Best. Company. I feel valued, respected and rewarded for the hard work, passion and pride I put into my job.

Cons

We still have a hard time realizing that there is a large population of remote employees. So meetings based out of Headquarters can get frustrating and we need to do better at connecting employees that are remote but based in the same area.

Pros

- Most people really like the company and believe in the mission (Go Palo Alto Networks!) - Super nice and brand new HQ campus in Santa Clara with cafeteria, gym, juice bar, coffee house, etc - Definitely going places in the stock market - Industry leading/cutting edge product

Cons

- Too much cronyism - Most upper management in Marketing go wayyyy back, and it shows - The "disappearing act" - you'll just never see coworkers again and it won't be acknowledged - If they don't like you, you won't get fired, you will just be given 0 recognition, 0 bonuses, and talked bad about until you leave (even if you work 80 hour weeks)

Pros

Thank God for the people working on the ground. Most people are great to work with but the company is struggling to keep them.

Cons

Leadership is giving the phrase "change is a constant" a whole new meaning. It's not strategic change but unproductive wholesale change to big and little things constantly like basic product branding or your management chain. Most of your work is going to require time and family sacrifices to finish up because of urgent executive asks which then get reversed in a few months anyway and yes that's right you need to make more time and family sacrifices to urgently undo what you just did. How do you get recognized for good work when most of your hard work is thrown under the bus by the new leader who has the opposite idea for what should be done than their predecessor? Rinse repeat. Another huge con.. the company is set up for maximum infighting and power plays. Leaders here have no patience for hearing anything but "yes this is the best idea i've ever heard" and pass the same mentality down to their workers. Sucks for you if you work in a cross-functional team with competing demands.. you'll be treated like an obstacle to one team or another and get used to being steamrolled. I've never in my life witnessed adults crying at work until I got here. Employees are hostages in this ugly cycle but management want to believe root cause of employee unhappiness is we can't find lateral roles in the company. Unreal.