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Very hard to get things done. Moving slower and slower each year. Declining product quality. - Manager VMware Employee Review

2.0
Jan 5, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good pay and benefits There are still some very smart and nice people (but they are in decline) Nice campus and physical work environment

Cons

Very heavyweight and dysfunctional release management process. Very slow moving. Takes enormous engineering effort each year to put out a vSphere product release, while not moving the needle very much. Toxic politics and a fair amount of silo-ing and back-stabbing. Overall a very harsh engineering culture where different silos tear and grind at each other rather than unify and collaborate. Company pays lots of lip service to meritocracy and accountability, but what happen daily is just the opposite. Toxic and incompetent people are allowed to be around for years, wrecking havoc on the engineering organization. Product quality seems to be getting worse each year.

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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