Lack of Product Innovation, Management Diversity and Career Plateaus
Pros
Great culture 2010 - 2016, team goals, collaborative, solid business integration of Archer GRC acquisition, strong in 2FA/MFA with SecurID product line. TechFest was the highlight of the year for each SEs and there were good mentor programs.
Cons
After Dell took over SE team culture started to gradually decline, especially with departure of senior SE leadership. Product innovation slowed and the company started looking too much like Symantec, McAfee and other has-been names in security software. Various SE teams within the different product BUs had very different experiences depending on which first level SE manager ran the team. Gender and non-white diversity is also sorely lacking in middle management. There are a few bad managers in the company. SE career path for promotions past Senior SE was uncertain and too much dependence on whether you had a rock star sales team, despite how well you might be respected by your peers as an SE. RSA also relies on their well-known brand (especially SecurID tokens) to typically underpay staff below the market. It’s a great place to start your cybersecurity sales or SE career but ageism and minimal pay increases will force out the experienced SEs eventually. I left after my career plateaued and SE management quality declined.
