Pros
HR does a great job with benefits and employee perks. I firmly believe the reason NetApp is always in the top 10 of Fortune's Best Place to Work is due to the external factors that make employees happy - good benefits, pay is alright (I'm sure great for engineers and such), awesome cafeteria (not free food like Google but still good quality food), WFH program (if you could get your boss to approve it - our boss clamps down on it due to being in an order/sales support organization), the usual employee friendly things like Employee Appreciation Week (there's a whole shindig where you can take your kids on Family Day - petting zoo, crafts, face painting, the works). Very nice gym (again external employee perk - make sure your workload actually permits you to have time to go to the gym, lol) Very nice campus and grounds (love the fountains, the infinity pool, walk ways, mini putting green, redwoods and maples - very zen) Executives seem to have a clear vision of where to take the company. Love that they make themselves available for new employees via TOAST (Training on All Special Things) - I was very motivated and pumped after TOAST. People are genuinely nice and the teamwork mentality abounds. Volunteer time off (VTO) - another employee perk. How cool is this? You get paid to volunteer at a charity of your choice or your group's choice. I love VTO and this concept of giving time (rather than just money) to good causes.
Kontras
Rotating to other functions is not encouraged at all. Some folks in our group have been at their jobs for over 5 years! While being a Subject Matter Expert is good, it also tends to breed complacency and resistance to change (notice that about my group). Our middle management (people manager and director levels) prefer "youth" and seem to dismiss experience (i.e. people like me who are over 40 and have a lot of experience but cannot create a macro, lol. I guess Excel macros are more important than real world experience). I think this is where I take issue with the whole "Great Place to work" deal. Externally, it does look like NetApp is a great place to work (see above pros). But when it comes to professional advancement, gaining new skills, and mentoring, I don't see much at all. "Moving around" seems to be discouraged or people just don't want to move around! At least not in the sales support side. And it is hard to transfer from one org to another (e.g., Sales support to Operations/Supply Chain). Quality of middle management is average to inferior. Very political. Lot of favoritism. Groups do not have best practices. Work-life balance does not exist.