Great pay, bad work environment - Senior Systems Engineer Dell Technologies Employee Review

2.0
11 June 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Dell paid me well and continued to dangle a carrot of more to inspire me to work longer and harder. Located in Austin, which is relatively cheap to find housing. Bonus plans were easy to understand, published for everyone to see. Christmas break was nice as the company really does scale down for about 2 weeks.

Cons

Long hours. as they outsource more resources around the world, getting anything done was a pain. The good old boy network is big drawback, that is if you would rather have your work speak for you. Their rating system is idiotic, as it requires a curve to be enforced and good people to managed out as the bottom of your group. Talented people when I started in 98 slowly left and was replaced with people more interested in a paycheck than doing something great and new.

Explore other reviews about Dell Technologies

5.0
5 Feb 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great Place to work and advancement.

Cons

New Organization structure during 2025 ended team building by making one company/Division team instead of smaller specialized teams.

1.0
15 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Today? A job that helps pay the bills.

Cons

The culture completely changed circa 2022. Layoffs happen every month in small batches, so they are not covered in the news with big layoffs, but the total over the last couple of years is 10-20K people per year. Current employees that I still talk to live in constant fear of being laid off. The salary gap between employees in the same function is ridiculous and discriminatory. As a leader, when I'd raise it with HR, it was never addressed. Had a situation where I was hiring an underpaid employee from another team. I wanted to give her a 60% pay increase just to match what her peers on my team made, and I had the budget to do so. HR denied my request to do that raise and only gave her a 20% increase. They didn't want to send the "wrong message" that she was underpaid before (which she was) or that other employees could expect that level of pay raise in internal promotions (regardless of whether they should). They have to come into the office 5 times/week, even though Michael Dell once made fun of CEOs that didn't adopt hybrid/remote work. Just last week, I had a former colleague resign because the stress in the current environment was taking a toll on her mental health. If you have any other option, I'd highly recommend you don't take a job at Dell.

2
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