Death spiral - Director Engineering NetApp Employee Review

1.0
Jun 7, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

NetApp has great benefits (ESPP, 401K, Healthcare, Bonus, Stock grants) and has nice traditions with weekly beer bash events on Fridays. Most of the people there are very genuine and awesome to work with.

Cons

Layoffs every Spring (3 in the last 2 years) and more layoffs anticipated (if NetApp does not exhibit growth in the next 6 months which is all but certain) HR forces managers to align ratings based on a scale, assuring that a specific percentage fall into each category. If you deserve the highest rating, you may not get it if too many others did great work that year - you'll be dropped to the next rating which means less $$$ not to mention you're not getting the rating you deserve. Same problem exists at the bottom where engineers are forced in to the "needs improvement" category to satisfy an antiquated bell curve for rating distribution. Sr. Management takes care of the chosen ones that they worked with prior to NetApp. If you're not one of these special cases, you're career is almost certain to go no where. Decision making is based on consensus across the broad organization at NetApp - it's very difficult to innovate and drive new content into Data ONTAP in a timely fashion for the customers. cDOT is way to complex and customers are reluctant to take the plunge. NetApp just got rid of the bulk of its support staff in the US and now has to hire & train new support in India. This should bode well in convincing companies to adopt cDOT. :-( This is not the same NetApp it was 10 years ago. My money is on us being acquired within 6-9 months.

Explore other reviews about NetApp

5.0
Jun 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good work life balance (in my team)

Cons

Leadership is bad, stay away!

3.0
Jun 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Not the worst pay around - Opportunity for advancement if you get the right management - Good financial benefits (ESPP, 401k options, mega backdoor Roth) - The one thing GK is good at is driving up the company stock price. Hope you got yourself some RSUs

Cons

- NetApp hasn't made a new product in 10 years, so you'll be hard pressed to find development work that isn't directly tied to supporting what was built before then. - Very little innovation other than weekend-project-level AI tools - Health and dental benefits are not great - Upper management is completely detached from reality

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