Pros
First of all, I love my job and I love the people I work with. My immediate management is very easy to work with and I have the best and brightest peers around me each day. The company is great at helping each other succeed and gathering resources to come to your aid when you ask for it. The product is great and although the most expensive solution in the industry, I also truly believe we bring the best value to our clients. I feel good about what I do each day and I'm allowed to be self-driven in my day to day activities. The executive team is open about the business activities of the organization and will often hold all-hands meetings and allow anyone to ask any question the see fit privately or in front of their peers. Additionally, processes and systems seems to move quickly, so there is not a lot of waiting around for promises or expectations to be delivered. The pay is good and the work-life balance is also very nice.
Cons
If you're gone, you're gone. I've seen multiple people just disappear one day from the company with the only explanation given to them is that they weren't a "cultural fit." Although some of these firings may have been warranted, it seems classless, in my opinion, to fire someone one day with no advance notice, attempt of behavioral management or any explanation at all as to why they are being let go. Many times, this is coming from an executive level, removed from the floor. I'm not alone in my fear that I may be the next victim if I step one toe out of line... perhaps they may even track down who wrote this review and let me go that way - I'm sure Proofpoint has a way. Even more, these employees had good performance metrics and overall healthy relationships in the office. It's a bit concerning when this happens way too often. Also, beware if you're going after an SME Commercial position. The quota for the smallest segment in Commercial is 90% of the next segment up which no one apparently thought through clearly. The smallest SME segment quota had a 22% percent increase this year which no numbers from last year warranted and the field position above them was ONLY a 15% increase. The client size is significantly smaller and the deal size is also much smaller. In fact, the only people who seem to really make quota in that small commercial segment apparently close deals of companies that were actually larger than their generally approved segment size. In addition, Proofpoint does not price to sell effectively to smaller clients; one of the primary services we provide has the same exact base price for a 300 user company as it does for a 3500 user company... what this means for the reps is tough luck on selling that to the smaller client. Proofpoint seemingly prices them out on purpose because we don't have enough back end support to handle selling too much of this service to smaller clients; which would be fine IF the company didn't expect those services to be sold in that space which is the only conceivable reason for such a large quota increase. Third, Proofpoint is very cheap when it comes to any type of SWAG. Getting a pair of Proofpoint branded socks for a long-term and loyal customer is like pulling teeth and heaven forbid if you want a T-shirt or anything like that... just forget about it. Another employee went so far to please her client that she had to liteally go to the store to pick them up something and say it was from Proofpoint because the marketing dept was either unwilling or unable to get her anything to send. Either way, that's an issue. I assume that is why we lost our last head of marketing... Fourth, the company offers a great incentive to refer your friends, but often times recruiters won't even call applicants you recommend. They make it very difficult. And finally, they company does not offer a 401k match. Just get one already.
