Pros
VMware is still an extremely innovative environment, and they have an endless supply of Gummie Bears.. Cool things are happening all over the company to watch and be involved in. It's definitely been a bumpy ride, and the management turnover has certainly taken its toll, but - overall - a great experience to be a part of. Great new products coming, strength of company as a whole seems solid, overall diversity of employees and culture. The only thing constant is change. Each year at VMware seems to be so different than the previous year. I like change, and this is a great place to be if you are adaptable and open to new things. If you want to, you can learn something new often, from what I've experienced.
Kontras
The billion-dollar start-up feel is gone, as we have morphed into the lean, green virtual machine. It stills feels like the roadmap for the company doesn't get translated to the trenches. Bits and pieces of information received don't help much to really feel like you are part of the evolution. After 3.5 years at VMware, I still have trouble actually figuring out what some groups are responsible for. The constant re-orgs and re-naming of workgroups doesn't help much. I realize it has to happen, but our intranet is horrible at helping employees decipher how the company is structured and what the various workgroups actually do (AND its built on crap MSFT software). The location is very non-transit friendly, which I find really annoying. Why did we build that campus out in the middle of no where anyway? Smack dab in the middle between 280 and 101.....brilliant! 2 parking spots for every 3 employees.....double brilliant! The company needs to provide more telecommuting options to employees. Not everyone wants to live near Palo Alto, nor spend an hour or so DRIVING to work each way, or better yet 2 hours each way taking transit. I, unfortunately, would have to agree with the general consensus on our middle-managers. You find you self all too-often thinking....."how did that person get their job?". Some Senior Management positions also seem to be filled with people who aren't qualified, or were qualified when they were hired but are totally inept at dealing with what VMware is growing into. Morale is lagging. I think we all miss Diane (and I miss her sweater-sets), but let's give Paul a chance, folks. This guy is brilliant in his own right and we can't bring Diane back. I'm really looking forward to seeing what she'll do next. She was a pretty incredible force at VMware. I look forward to a time in my career at VMware where I'm focused on pro-active initiatives, rather than being in a constant reactive state.