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Overall good for product managers. But run away from the PM team in Desktop BU. - Product Manager VMware Employee Review

3.0
Apr 14, 2010
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation. Nice place in the current cloud service movement. You will gain good knowledge and make many good connections.

Cons

If you are product manager, you will feel great to work for any team inside VMware except desktop BU. The desktop BU pm team used to be a great team. However since late 2009, all of original founders who built this team decided to leave. The team was then taken over by an engineering director, who unfortunately lacks both product management experience and leadership quality. As part of the change, the BU also moved several engineering managers to this team to replace several experienced product managers. As a result, the team has been run by an arrogant yet highly inexperienced person. He basically can not and are afraid of making any strategic and operational decisions. He trusted people who shared the same qualities and can only follow his order. The morale in this team is extremely low. The team has a very bad reputation within the organization. If you are looking for a job here, my advice is to run as a crazy from this team.

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5.0
Jun 24, 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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