F5 reviews

The biggest con is that F5 is a dinosaur in the technology world but is stuck in denial about that fact. The world is shifting to the cloud, and while they talk a good game about making that shift, recent product development priorities say otherwise. The most recent hardware platform release was supposed to start revenue growing again, but I'd be surprised if next week's earnings report shows that to be the case. The purpose built security appliances appear to be a disaster. They saw the cloud wave coming, talked a big game like they were pivoting, but addiction to hardware margins caused them to miss it. The other con (closely related to the first) is that they care so much about what the Street thinks of them that every decision is a short term one to maximize the current quarter. No long term thinking or willingness to see short term pain for long term gain.

No clear direction of how to get there. There are a lot of leaders who have been there 5-10 years that think they can rely on instinct feelings about strategy and employees to make decisions. False promises are made, false expectations are set for higher leadership and reporting employees, and those who stop to ask "Do we have data or logic to support this decision?" are hushed and asked not to meddle. F5 has a lot of amazing people and the chance to thrive and make strides, but it's being squashed by office politics, failure to be objective as leaders, and insane attrition rates among new employees. It also means new and growing employees have no strong sense of development. every move is at the will of managers who aren't held to any expectations. compensation varies wildly in the same role, and promotions are handed out base don who middle managers like and get along with, not who has experience, leadership skills, or people management. It's scaring young people off, and they're seeking security from companies like Microsoft and Cisco, or compensation worth the risk at places like Amazon and Tableau.