Pros
Work/Life balance is what you make of it. If you want to work 10 hours a day, you can. If you want 4 hours to yourself a couple times a week, you can do that too. The core product basically sells itself. Proofpoint has a good R&D/M&A strategy for onboarding new products and features. POC processes have been streamlined pretty well and risk has been greatly reduced. Support is good, not great. But they are fairly reliable. Escalation managers handle problems well. Professional services does most onboarding, so very little SE time is spent setting up new customers. Some execs have left and some have been asked to leave after the acquisition, but things remain steady. There is a career ladder for SEs (SE > Senior SE > Staff SE > Principal SE), but the path is unclear and very subjective to Managers, Directors, and VP
Cons
Many newly hired AEs have never sold software before. Some are afraid to talk to customers. SEs are often required to mentor basic sales principles and guide AEs through Proofpoint internal procedures. AE managers, directors, and VPs think SEs are replaceable cogs and expect them to drive sales. No direct incentive is given to SEs for mentoring AEs. Only 10% of top attaining SEs go to President's Club. Even if you send an AE, you will likely stay home. Most of the newly acquired products are bleeding edge, in their infancy, and definitely not Gartner MQ leaders. Selling them is tough. Core SEs are expected to be experts on ALL core and newly acquired products. Specialists from the acquisitions are retained for a time, but core SEs are expected to pickup the slack as specialists leave. Post-acquisition, there is no real replacement for the Employee Stock Purchase Plan (15% discount on PFPT stock, up to 15% of your salary). There was a risky co-investment offered with a limited investment window and a 5k minimum. Minimum requirements and risk scared away many employees from investing and new hires are not eligible. RSUs were replaced by incentive units. Offered at basically the same quantity, but about half the value of PFPT stock. The 401k match is just a joke where the punchline is capped at $1500 per year. The CFO himself is required to approve slightly discounted quotes. It is a waste of time and doesn't scale. If you take clients out for lunch, make sure you keep records of everything. Sales expenses have to be itemized or you won't get reimbursed. They don't wait for an opening to promote you from SE to Senior to Staff to Principal. They just grant it to SEs who kiss the right butt. And promotions don't guarantee a raise. Inflation has skyrocketed and I haven't seen a cost of living increase. Just a max of 4% per year if I exceed expectations.