Forget the hype - Systems Engineer (Sales) Aruba Networks Employee Review

Don't believe a word you hear. Dom will say things like he hates politics, leadership will say things like they want to help you. The truth is this company is the most political in the networking edge business and probably only more so after the HP acquisition. You've got employees that have been here for years building little kingdoms and they are not to keen on letting you into the good ole boy network. The only help you'll get is once every six months to a year when performance review time comes so you can find out what your management really thinks about you. Add in the fact that they are now owned by HP and they are marketing like they are still a completely separate company and one can only assume the politics have gotten or will be getting worse. If you're planning on joining and aren't a personal friend with your manager, I would seriously consider looking elsewhere. The culture internally isn't a team attitude, they will say that it is, but the experience is everyone for themselves. Territories in the field are divided based upon who you know and past performance rather than any type of equality - It's the have's and the have nots. Speak with any partner who's sole source of revenue isn't Aruba and they will tell you the same thing when it comes to the field sales organization. Management has an entitlement attitude, they don't work for you, you work for them to be successful. In addition, they basically abandoned the partnerships with Brocade, Juniper, Dell and Alcatel Lucent and existing partners that sold these products when they allowed HP to acquire them. While the company may be packaged like it's a great place to be and work, the history simply doesn't line up. They laid off 8% of the work force to make a number on the street and outsource much of the labor to India. One tour of the corporate facility past where they want you to see and you can tell what culture and attitude runs this place. This place is a sweat shop - during one performance review I was told I wasn't working 60 hours a week so that wasn't enough, regardless of what I was accomplishing. Their is no such thing as vacation, they say unlimited so they don't have to pay out anything when employees leave. If you take it, your guilted the entire time and expected to be available via phone with no compensation or thanks for doing so. Nothing is shared internally, with such a huge customer base only vague references to use cases and business solutions are given for fear that your somehow going to steal the account. Many of the mid level and new managers have never held management positions prior - they are the type of people who wouldn't get the job at the last place they worked so they came here. Rather than building you up they are all about protecting themselves. Cheapest company I ever worked for, plan on sharing a room any time you travel to a corporate event. Shirts, pens, just about anything with a logo comes out of your own pocket because the attitude here is they pay you enough. Contests for bonuses, travel, etc. are rigged to provide the outcome management wants to use as propaganda to the rest of the company. Territories, accounts and contacts will simply be re-aligned to provide the outcome they are looking for with no regard for your efforts into them.