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VMware is a fun place to be; it's aggressively growing, and it strives to provide a comfortable work environment - Software Engineer VMware Employee Review

5.0
8 May 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

VMware is a fun place to be during the day. The company is growing, and their technology has lots of room to grow and improve. The employees are diverse in age and culture; and everyone is friendly. This is helpful as many of us are new to the Bay Area. Everyone in the company is smart, works hard, and pulls their weight. There's a culture of collaboration; and a degree of freedom in selecting one's work. VMware provides a great set of on-site perks: free soda & other healthy beverages, on-site expresso machines, plenty of healthy snacks, pinball machines, a friday "beer bash", and plenty of games like pool, ping-pong, and foosball tables.

Cons

Although virtualization is an interesting and exciting field; some of the periphery work can be burdensome. Because the stock is volatile; recent hires will become very wealthy before other employees who have stock options that are severely underwater. Some employees underestimate the tangible advantages of competitors' products; like Parallels and Microsoft HyperV. Occasionally, perks are changed without employee involvement; to the chargin of those who chose VMware for a specific perk. A weakness is that VMware's products built by Unix people are difficult for Windows/Mac-centric users; and products built by Windows people are difficult for Unix/Mac-centric users. The cubicle areas can be noisy.

Explore other reviews about VMware

5.0
24 June 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

VMware is a big company but in many ways had a startup vibe. That was great because the resources and infrastructure of a big company were there, but it gave most people I worked with freedom to work on many projects, influence, move around, and contribute in many ways. Plus, many things moved faster than they might at other companies of the same size. Perks were really great including bonuses, events on the campus, opportunities, etc.

Cons

The biggest con is the annual layoff. During most of the years I was there, we were growing like crazy, beating expectations, gaining in stock price, etc. It was always positive and upward. However, every single January, it was known that there would be a round of layoffs, even when all numbers were looking great as they almost always were. Management called it restructuring. But, over the years, some really good people were let go for no apparent reason. Then to add insult to injury, a week or two later, there would be a company quarterly meeting discussing how VMware was doing so well and is still hiring, but they had to make some changes. It always felt dishonest and the sympathy for those let go came across as disingenuous.

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