Oh boy, where to start?
I worked at Fortinet until 2024. The workload was insane, repetitive, and the whole org felt monolithic. The job could have been decent if it wasn’t basically a call center job with extra steps. You’re expected to pick up the phone for random customers who assume you know their entire network by heart, while at the same time burning through your backlog. Could almost be a pro if it wasn’t so exhausting.
Management was unhealthy, and obsessed with micromanaging instead of helping people grow. Work-life balance was non-existent. Enforcing a return-to-office policy post-COVID is already a controversial move, but checking who comes in and punishing people for working remotely is a bad move on another level (especially with an office far from Prague city center).
As for career growth, here’s one fact that says it all: I had exactly one 1-1 with my direct manager in a whole year. Not weekly, not monthly, not quarterly. One. One meeting per year to talk about what’s working, what’s not, and where I wanted to grow. If that doesn’t scream bad leadership, I don’t know what does.
Higher management wasn’t better. They seemed mostly self-interested, happy to keep the status quo as long as their numbers looked good and they could flex in executive meetings.
Benefits were fine when I joined in 2021, but after almost three years of tenure and solid results, I never saw a salary increase.
The list could go on, but at this point I feel like I’m pouring water on a drowning TAC.
Note: this was my experience between 2021 and 2024. Things may have changed since then, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
