There is no culture. Period. HR will tell you they have it, and they have food truck day, and free ice cream, but at the core it does not exist between employees and management. Some teams are better (marketing) but others (sales, IT) are not. If you are looking at a Sales position, plan to be there less than one year, as they burn through staff, and constantly changing hit rates. I’ve never seen a department go through so many staff.
If you are interviewing, ask your interviewer how long they have been with the company. Make sure you can talk to someone that has been there for less than one year. If they have been there more than 3 years, consider that person a lifer, as they are most likely part of the problem with Solarwinds. Folks that have been there multiple years, have fallen into the day to day and are not willing or unable to push teams into different directions. Many times they are even blocked by entrenched upper management.
Other than putting money into development, this company is extremely cheap, since their buyout. We needed additional staff, and quite frankly requests fell of deaf ears. Requests that were suggested were often cheap contractors and interns. It was also unacceptable how long it took to get approvals for new equipment or travel. I had little budget for training. Health benefits have also become more expensive the last few years.
I also found it was very difficult to move up. I could only ask so many times, and even though I felt I gave them every chance, I’m glad I finally took my leave.
The CEO is very inspiring at first, but after sitting in on many all hands meetings, it’s the same boring message repackaged over and over. “Fail often, but fail fast...” (Ex SW employees will know what I’m talking about.) IMO, he only cares about sales, and the next acquisition.
