Barracuda Networks Died with the Resignation of Dean Drako - Technical Specialist Barracuda Networks Employee Review

Back in 2011 when I started my career at Barracuda Networks (5 years), there were happy employees, who didn't just work together, but were almost like family. There were trips to the Mountain Winery for concerts, tickets to sharks games, drinks, food and potlucks on holidays, Dean Drako (previous CEO) would have a monthly lunch meeting with new Barracuda employees to get acquainted, annual sales kick-off's were about motivating employees to work hard for the new year, and show appreciation of hard work in the prior year. I have seen Barracuda go through so many changes over the years, and since Dean Drako left, it has been a downward spiral. Barracuda is known to hire young men and women who crave for a career in the tech industry, and will work hard for a minimal wage, only to realize in a year or two that you can only move horizontally not vertically. The few that became successful were mostly those who had a relationship with executives/management prior to their careers at Barracuda. The lower management positions are a nothing but a joke. Barracuda mostly only considers current employees from basic sales roles who typically have little or no managerial experience. One of the employees hired for a managerial position chews tobacco every minute of the day, and recently did a sales announcement in front of the entire inside sales team with a dip hanging out of his mouth. There is no organized compensation plan for veterans at Barracuda, they do not give raises after a year, 5 years, 10 years. Instead, raises are typically only given when asked for, and are typically only with commission rather than your base salary. Just like 99% of the reviews posted here about Barracuda Networks, I have to again state, your base salary is not comparable to similar positions in the tech industry. Rather than incentivize their employees, Barracuda would rather spend their earnings on a large UFC cage built in the middle of the sales floor to be used for nothing but distracting announcements regarding negligible "spiffs", five-thousand dollar coffee machines, over ten 50'' screen TVs displayed in the "cuda-lounge" area that probably costed 10k+ to build ( employees don't really hang out here though), thousands of dollars spent monthly on lunches provided Monday-Wednesay, which gave half the company extreme food poisoning about 6 months ago, etc., etc.....the list goes on. All of the money spent on the above could have been spent on providing employees raises and incentives to stay at Barracuda and advance in their career. Barracuda's business model is no longer to simplify IT, it is to gain as much revenue for executives provided by its over-worked employees and a product that sells itself. I do not blame the short-lived employees, the veterans and executives that left Barracuda. Many, many talented people have come and gone at Barracuda. At one point I counted 8 employees leaving in one week. There is a high turnover rate, no incentives, low pay and poor management, so in other words, if you are looking at Barracuda for your next career, my advice is to look elsewhere for career opportunities. Don't waste your time and skills working for Barracuda.