The odds of moving up from a development role into any sort of management is slim. The management structure tries to remain flat - while good for effectiveness and efficiency, it is poor for future opportunities (not that this matters to me or most engineers, but it's something to be aware of). Compensation is mediocre; we had all our options taken away but little else to make up for that shortfall, although my understanding is that this was a widespread occurence.
Only two weeks of vacation is a much lower number than you'd expect from a tech company. In general, all of the "auxiliary" benefits that you'd expect from tech companies of this size aren't there. There's no amenities to speak of (at my location). What kind of tech company doesn't have any common space whatsoever on a site with 500+ employees? This means no cafeteria, no fitness faciltiies; the quality of the that is brought from the San Jose facities goes from terrible to disgusting; whether or not food even shows up is always inconsistent, and there's no response to feedback regarding how terrible it is. What this translates to is that in a typical day, you show up, you bring your lunch, you do your work, you go home. What kind of company, much less a tech one, doesn't offer commuter checks in 2008? You're in walking distance from Sunnyvale caltrain yet this is the only company I am aware of that doesn't do a commuter check system.
Come here to learn a technical field well and learn from smart people. Don't expect more.
