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Nice people, interesting projects, and a Borg-cube corporate culture - QA Engineer VMware Employee Review

2.0
Oct 31, 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

* There are still some awesome people in the Sofia office * Very flexible working conditions (though I hear there's a general push to eliminate this point) * Interesting projects to work on and the right equipment to do so * Renumeration and benefits are good

Cons

* Total disrespect of common sense from various management authorities both local and in HQ. Some "administrativa" sneaky tactics and some arm twisting can also to be expected. * Stacked ratings! God help you if you were foolish enough not to keep a "scapegoat" around for the time your team's ticket gets picked in the so called performance evaluations. You may get kicked out even if you were just promoted. * "Quality doesn't matter. Reporting does." Management seems to not care whether the estimates you give them are accurate. Neither if you'd do the job pro forma, leaving someone else to pick up the trash behind you. In any case you'd better to adhere to their metrics and do whatever needed to meet the target number of bugs/test cases/pass-fail ratio/whatever. Dirty tricks allowed. * Ventilation system in the office is a joke. Once 80% (or so) of the capacity of a floor is reached it gets awfully difficult to make through a whole day and maintain your focus. Chronic headache is to be expected. If caught it it, please try not to drive on your way back - blackouts and momentary loss of concentration can occur and that's bound to get you in an accident. Trust me on this one!

Explore other reviews about VMware

5.0
Jun 24, 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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