Great Place To Work If You're a Functioning Drunk With No Other Options
Pros
Loose policy concerning booze in the office. If you've got loose morals and aren't too concerned with business ethics this is a great place to be. For what it's worth, the storage products are decent, but the security side is laughable. Most of their products are canned versions of open source solutions that they wrap in dumbed down UI. Instead of doing one or 2 things really well, Barracuda does 13 or 14 things in a mediocre fashion. As much as they would like to avoid the monicker of "Low Cost Leader", that's what they are, and that's why people purchase their products. There will always be a place in the market for these products, but they will never be best of breed. Working here in a sales function will teach you to be organized and self sufficient, and you will learn a lot about how to manage accounts though Salesforce, so as an entry level inside rep, this is a good place to cut your teeth. Just don't plan on making Barracuda a long term stop. Support teams are the unsung heroes of this organization, and are really keeping the ship afloat there. The dedication to keeping the customer happy even when the product does not behave as promised is amazing, and the support engineers have been known to work some magic from time to time.
Cons
Barracuda boasts that their culture makes the company a great place to work. What they don't mention is the childish nature of their culture. It's so much like high school that they could easily film an MTV reality show there. If you're in, things are fantastic, but if you ever fall out of favor, or propose an adult way of thinking, the long timers will make your life difficult. Sales and product training is an unorganized mess, and communication is never consistent. While there is an effort to improve this, the people tasked with this project are more concerned with climbing the social ladder than actually putting useful processes in place. Inside sales leadership is now directed by a team that has had limited success in practice, and even less success as a leadership team. Their track record as inside management team would indicate that roughly 65% quota attainment is grounds for constant promotion. Their ability to micromanage and create the most ridiculous success criteria for sales teams, however, is amazing. As I mentioned previously, Barracuda will take you to places in Salesforce you have never been before, regardless of the relevancy. Business practices vary at Barracuda depending on who you ask, and how close to the end of the fiscal quarter you might be. It's a commonly encouraged practice to book orders that will absolutely be returned the following quarter for the sake of instant gratification, and the hopes that a few of the customers can be strong armed into paying the invoice. Also, the 30 day right of return that they've made famous is rarely enforced, and returns will be recognized sometimes 120 days later, depending on the mood of the accounts receivable team. Benefits have gotten better as of this year, with the company picking up more of the tab for health/vision/dental, and finally rolling out a 401k match plan, but the equity grants were border line insulting. While I'm well aware that the days of retiring on your stock grants are long gone, what Barracuda offers to folks that put in amazing day to day effort is well under market standard. Employees that have been there for nearly a decade and helped build a billion dollar company have not been taken care of either, and yet the company has shamed them in to thinking that they would not be valued at any other company in the area. The amount of grandstanding and spin that takes place when an employee does part ways for a better opportunity is comical. Executives shouldn't need to address the entire sales organization when someone chooses to improve their personal situation. It's part of the business we're in, and it's part of life. No discussion or public shaming needed. All in all, this Barracuda is a pressure cooker, squeezing a lot out of very little. The company is continuing to show Wall Street better than average growth, but there are very few people reaping the rewards of that success, and the ones that do see benefit are more concerned with perpetuating the party culture than helping their employees build a lasting and meaningful career.
