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JDSU
2.8 of 5 115 reviews
www.jdsu.com Milpitas, CA 1000 to 5000 Employees
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JDSU Reviews

Updated May 22, 2013
All Employees Current Employees Only

2.8 115 reviews

                             

49% Approve of the CEO

JDSU President and CEO Thomas Waechter

Thomas Waechter

(61 ratings)

32% of employees recommend this company to a friend
28 employee reviews Back to all reviews
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  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
  • Culture & Values
         
  • Senior Management
         
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  • Disapproves of CEO

 

Milpitas, CA (US)

Former Employee – worked at JDSU full-time for more than 7 years

ProsA lot of job opportunities to move around given high turn over rates. Can learn a lot here.

Good health insurance rates

ConsTop mgmt lacks of vision and company is full of incompetent people. Middle mgmt drives staff down to the ground as top mgmt is very demanding. If you are lousy, you are not held responsible. If you are a decent person, then you are fully burdened with all the work as Mgmt has unrealistic expectation

Advice to Senior ManagementBe realistic. What you are doing is driving capable people away.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

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1 person found this helpful  

Former Employee – worked at JDSU

ProsJDSU is the Goliath of the photonics telecommunincations device industry. It is too big to fail. If one has a vision, and the thick skin and determination to see it through, here are all the resources to make that vision live. This is the surest place, to launch another telco revolution, such as was brought on by the EDFA and the high-powered tunable laser source, and the fiber-to.-the-premises.

ConsJDSU made numerous acquisitions since the early 90's-2000's, which in turn were the amalgamation of numerous acquisitions, and has yet to integrate these disparate,graphically separate, units, each of which clings to its own original culture and origins. Unbelievably, more than 10 years later, the squabble over who (what site, or former acquisition) will do what, still lingers. In-fighting and political manoevering is left to settle the matter, rather than rational decisions.

Advice to Senior ManagementRip -off the band-aid in the Telco part of your triad. Make rational personnel and business decisions and explain them high and low. Re-assign, hire, fire, re-align, whatever you call it. The organization carries too much history of turf wars (and charisma duels) that should have been laid to rest long ago, more than a decade ago.

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  • Work/Life Balance
         
  • Career Opportunities
         
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  • Senior Management
         
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  • No Opinion of CEO

 

Milpitas, CA (US)

Former Employee – worked at JDSU full-time for more than a year

ProsOutside office activities are good.

ConsBe ready to be stress. Management doesnt look at you if your stress or not. HR are pro management doesnt do anything to improve working relationship with the employee and manager.
No vacation accruals. They have DTO, which depends on your Manager approval.

Advice to Senior ManagementGive management training to all Managers and Supervisor, how to deal with your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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1 person found this helpful  

Germantown, MD (US)

Current Employee – been working at JDSU full-time for more than a year

ProsFlexibility
Work Life Balance
Decent package
No commute

ConsNo management communication
No opportunity to work on new projects
No career growth
Immediate Managers need to stop looking out for themselves
They make decisions without involving team members and when it comes to actually doing the job just hand it to some poor sucker without involving them in the meetings

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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Germantown, MD (US)

Current Employee – been working at JDSU full-time for more than 10 years

ProsDecent Engineering company,
very regimented

ConsLack any employee concern
Major buisness model is outsorcing of any and all manufacturing and operations management

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Disapproves of CEO

 

Current Employee – been working at JDSU full-time for more than 3 years

Prosfun team mates
great benefits
interesting work within the telecom engineering industry

ConsNo official vacation. Instead have Paid Time Off, which is up to your manager's discretion as to how much / when you are able to take any. Some individuals may take 6 weeks in a year, where another's manager will limit their group's to 1-2 weeks / year. If you're not a 'favorite', your PTO is limited.
Much work is outsourced, forcing late-night telecon calls across the world.
Management is poor, making decisions based on outcome on their personal behalf, without seeing the big picture.
Layoffs are not a surprise, but rather an expected quarterly occurrence.

Advice to Senior Managementdump a lot of the current managers, and replace them with qualified people.
Stop vagrant favoritism
See the big picture, to prevent further layoffs.
Bring more work back. Out sourcing is not producing better results.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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Current Employee – been working at JDSU full-time for more than a year

ProsDTO can be good if your manager approves your vacation.
Co-workers are good.
People work hard and really do a good job.

ConsLimited opportunity to advance.
Constant change in direction; no roadmap
Management is very secretive about decision making
Lack of diversity; lots of favoritism shown

Advice to Senior ManagementMake a decision to value your people.
Get a roadmap and stick with it.
Creating a culture of fear

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

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  • Work/Life Balance
         
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  • Comp & Benefits
         
  • Disapproves of CEO

1 person found this helpful  

Milpitas, CA (US)

Current Employee – been working at JDSU

ProsExcellent health benefits
Unlimited vacation if you can get your manger's approval
Work can be extremely interesting, challenging and fun

ConsSenior management is incompetent and elitist, no MBWA
Many coworkers are incompetent
English is a second language
Corporate infrastructure is nonexistent or incompetent
It is in a cyclical, boom and bust sector

Advice to Senior ManagementResign and have real executives apply to the board. The company is broken and can only be fixed with people who have a vision for a better more successful company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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  • Work/Life Balance
         
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  • Disapproves of CEO

2 people found this helpful  

Germantown, MD (US)

Current Employee – been working at JDSU

ProsA stepping stone to better jobs in the Telecom Industry

ConsNot a performance based culture. Hiring from the outside is preferable to promoting from within. Does not promote diversity. Extremely political where employees are watching their backs vs. taking actions in the best interests of customers and shareholders.

Advice to Senior ManagementMore with less eventually leads to less and less!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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  • Work/Life Balance
         
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1 person found this helpful  

Current Employee – been working at JDSU

Prosfair monetary compensation
good benefits
smart and hard-working coworkers
DTO

Consprojects are cut without forecasting future needs
management does not trickle down news, so employees are blindsided when their jobs go away
no possibility for growth / change
no training (no budget), so no growh
no recognition for hard work
low moral
DTO is at manager's discretion, so you better be on their good side

Advice to Senior Managementcross-communicate between teams
give a thanks for job well done

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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