My advice to anyone who takes a role at VMware is to make sure you're happy doing that job for a long time because advancement opportunities are limited. The most frequent complaint I heard at VMware was lack of opportunity to grow in one's career. That was true of me as well and the single biggest issue I pointed out on our yearly surveys. For whatever reason, the company usually fills open positions from the outside in most cases. While I realize this can help bring talent in, talented people on the inside of the company are often overlooked.