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Really admire the CEO but... - Anonymous employee VMware Employee Review

3.0
28 May 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Everything is what you expect from an established market leader. Having worked in the past with Cisco, I found everything more or less similar. I don't want to get in details since everything is same what you can find in other big shot companies.

Cons

Okay now let's talk about this since most of us are here for this section. CEO is fun to talk or even listen to and you get a feeling that he has his vision set clearly on where the company is headed and what responsibility of each employee should be. Very approachable and friendly. BUT...When it comes to his subordinate and specifically in India there is, well as other workplaces in India, lots and lots of POLITICS. Basically management people somehow manage to reach here and then make sure that they will stay here till they die ! And along this journey they make sure the deserving ones don't get much chance to grow while the "YES Sir"-attitude employees stay so that manager's job is secured. It's not that this happened to me and that's why i am blabbering but this is a norm here. Ideas get shot down because the management may have to push their US counterparts or their own lack of will. So, here's the thing, ever since VMware jumped into SDN domain there are two set of the engineers in the VMware- Those that are from core VMware backgrounds eventually got into SDN teams due to their tenure and then there are external hires from hardcore networking companies like Cisco, Juniper and the likes. Now, in between them there is always cold war situation because core VMware-turned-SDN experts are weak in basic networking concept (I can't blame them for being that) but they can't accept this thing in front of newly joined hardcore network engineers. And THIS is the main reason why there is alot of friction in between the company. If such core VMware-turned-SDN experts gets in some "Lead" type of role then they WILL make sure that the poor network background new hires will never join their team since they CAN reject their ideas and can become a problem during the promotion cycle. Apart from these things the usual applies- Non-technical managers in technical support role, internal transfers are next to impossible as the existing team management will deny your move to another team for as much as 1 year. Notice period buyout not possible as management will give nonsensical reasons to employee for completing the same.

Explore other reviews about VMware

5.0
24 Jun 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

VMware is a big company but in many ways had a startup vibe. That was great because the resources and infrastructure of a big company were there, but it gave most people I worked with freedom to work on many projects, influence, move around, and contribute in many ways. Plus, many things moved faster than they might at other companies of the same size. Perks were really great including bonuses, events on the campus, opportunities, etc.

Cons

The biggest con is the annual layoff. During most of the years I was there, we were growing like crazy, beating expectations, gaining in stock price, etc. It was always positive and upward. However, every single January, it was known that there would be a round of layoffs, even when all numbers were looking great as they almost always were. Management called it restructuring. But, over the years, some really good people were let go for no apparent reason. Then to add insult to injury, a week or two later, there would be a company quarterly meeting discussing how VMware was doing so well and is still hiring, but they had to make some changes. It always felt dishonest and the sympathy for those let go came across as disingenuous.

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