Unfortunately, however, that vision worth working for is being completely counteracted by extremely poor administrative and dismal management practices:
1) Esri's management people, at all levels, have attained their positions through relative success, but are not trained and have no understanding of management practices. All too often you have people who are bright technicians but dismal managers and their management style is inherited from above into establishing an environment of fear and retribution. Many of these managers have attained their positions through back-stabbing and trampling over other people, thus "demonstrating" that they are better than anyone else. This culture of management-incompetent people being allowed to become managers is probably the worst con at Esri. If you are an employee, or are considering becoming part of Esri, be prepared to work with a field full of snakes-in-tall-grass.
2) The focus of Esri used to be on the Customer. In fact, many organizations became engaged with Esri because that that outward locus of control. Recently, however, that locus has become more internal and it has become clear that while they say that customer relations are still number one, the reality is that their current interest are more mundane and self-centered. The focus now is on making "the sale". How that is accomplished is not relevant. Everyone at Esri now finds themselves reporting to an ever changing tide of managers and supervisors all with their own individual agendas and purposes but always with the ultimate goal of closing a deal. It is not uncommon to have review meetings at all levels with multiple overseers where the primary goal is to make their target feel inadequate.
3) The management of Human Resources is utterly non-sense. People are hired and put to work with zero on-boarding and support. New hires are expected to learn their jobs by the seat of their pants, become instant experts, and no one will lift a finger to help you understand what is expected of you. There are no definition of duties or responsibilities, managers do not clearly articulate expectations and do not set criteria, other than a joke of an Employee Performance Management System that is implemented with less care and consistency than an afterthought. Ultimately some people are rewarded and promoted because they are amiable or because they demonstrated that they are "better" than anyone else, while others are alienated and set aside, devoid of opportunity or standing because they did not meet some unspoken and unknown expectation.
4) The product line at Esri has always being complicated and cumbersome. That was particularly true when the software was command line-driven, but even today, with all the advancements of modern computing, becoming proficient in the use of their products requires a life-time commitment. Not only are their products cumbersome and complicated to use, but their product line is so extensive and convoluted that no one, not even Esri's experts, fully understand it. This causes an environment of confusion, duplication, and and overabundance of solutions where 90% of functionality is never really used by customers. It is a full time effort just to understand the product line and keep up with its ever changing iterations and levels of implementations. Never mind trying to explain what Esri does to your friends at a cocktail party.
5) Performance at Esri used to be measured by how well the client's needs were being met. Today, performance at Esri is measured by a mountain of ever changing procedures, methodologies, practices, and subjective directives. One day is different than the next, but the focus is on the process not the outcome. Thousands of man-hours are wasted every year in ridiculous meetings where everyone frets over the use of one word versus another or whether or not a description is succinct enough to meet some ever changing unknown expectation. The use of SalesForce, while promoted as being a tool to help capture and manage customer interactions, is really a means for these poor excuses for managers to impose their inconsistent point of view through overbearing coaching.
In short, Esri used to be a place worth working at, but as of late, you'll find that many many people have left because they cannot stand the disappointment any longer. It will take more than pseudo re-organizations and shuffling of the same bad managers from one place to another to make Esri a place where people can see themselves working the rest of their lives. In the meantime, they'll continue to fully occupy their narrow niche, hire and disappoint people and carry on trying to make the next sale. Good luck!
