Unfortunately despite all of the Pros I listed, the cons outweigh them for me, unfortunately.
I'll be leaving within the month.
In a nutshell there is a HUGE management problem at VMware. I've only started in the past 6 months so I came in with what I like to think is a fresh perspective. If you can, scroll through the past Glassdoor reviews and look for one titled “Looking back, VMware has some major problems” from November, 2014. It turned out to be very, very prescient for me. I remember reading it before I started and thinking, "well, that's interesting." It hits the nail so squarely on the head it's a bit eery.
To summarize and add my own color to that review: There is a huge disconnect between the various levels of management at VMware and what you get from one high-level VP, may not match what the Director says, which may not match what your manager says.
Very regularly I will have a Sr Director or VP bypass my own leader (a Director) and give me completely different priorities and instructions. You end up in a situation where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. And, just like in the movie Office Space, you find yourself telling the same thing to 3 different managers who are asking you to fill out your TPS reports correctly. I'm an engineering manager, my job is mostly spent sorting out politics and not leading a team of capable engineers.
Ultimately the problem really affects the individual contributors, the folks that really make it happen, who are left to sort out the mess. Not surprisingly, folks get and frustrated and leave. The turn-over rate, at least in my group, is depressing.
It's impossible to retain the top talent that VMware desperately needs to stay relevant as the technology they've built the whole business on is quickly changing (containers, Amazon, etc). There are two main camps (maybe three) of folks who seem to stick it out:
(A) Those who are afraid to go outside of VMware because this is all they've become jaded and complacent. This has become all they know. The tell tale sign is you see them shopping online all day, reading facebook, etc.
(B) Those on visas or something similar from India/China/etc who don't have an easy path to moving to somewhere else or are only aware of this sort of big company culture.
(C) The third camp of folks is the highest level executives, who are quite polished as you'd expect, they stick it out because they're not really exposed to what's going on at the lower levels and are likely oblivious, or don't really care. This is just a notch in their belt before they move on to their next executive position.
At the end of the day you're left with people who feel stuck (and are driven like rented mules to make up for the lack of quality engineers, eg working harder versus smarter) as they watch brief gusts of fresh air come by (new, smart, intelligent engineers) that quickly evacuate as soon as they get a hold of how things operate.
It's a shame really. :-( I was so excited to be at VMware but it's time to go after only 6 months.
