Long story short, I left and I regret it. You work for maybe one company like VMware in your entire career so let’s not pretend you will find something better so easily. Best thing you can do if you are at VMware is never look at this site. Look at the facts, get centered, and make your own decisions. VMware is still a great company to work for and will stay a great company for at least a year
8 replies (most recent on top)
"VMware is still a great company to work for ...".
VMware was a great company to work for. There, fixed it for ya!
Yes. Despite our issues, VMware is still a great place to work, maybe even the best place to work. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Personally I'll wait until the layoff. Having been at VMware for a decade and working with a great team throughout, I need the closure of a layoff instead of voluntary resignation.
The key folks on my team haven't left yet and haven't indicated they're planning to. Plus, they've been at VMware even longer. Now they might be planning to jump without saying, but can't count on that.
I know this might put me at a disadvantage later in the hiring market later with the competition. But I need this chapter to close properly before starting a new one.
**The thing that would sink it for me, would be if I somehow made it through the layoffs and they required folks to start doing hybrid work/or back in the office. Then I would start looking lol
@wak+1ihPLKB6 Probably the level of support and the typical buzzword “cultuar” At VMware, for some reason, everyone seems to do their job because they like it. At most other places, people are doing their jobs because they want to put food on the table. It’s just a job. Everyone I worked with at VMware sounded fairly upbeat. Now I get on calls with people and they sound miserable. The fluffy benefits maybe do make a difference after all
The reality is. It is up to you to define your own future. I left because my morale and motivation was zero and I cannot live with myself to get a nice package but got nothing to show for it. Personally vmware is just another job for me. Granted, it was the best job I had but life goes on. My main issue here is that I have been through several acquisitions and the one thing that makes this one different is the time it takes to know where you at. I cannot wait 6,12 or 18 months to find out my fate. Another issue is that no matter how large the layoff, we know there’ll be plenty and Hock made it very clear on the all staff that he wants to be fair and give Bcom staff the same options. What that means, and I am taking this from a $5b acquisition I was part of (5k employees):
You either
- get laid off
- immediately with severance
- later with severance
- You get the option to stay but you need to apply for the same / similar position where Bcom staff have the option to apply too. In my previous case I was lead architect in a team of 10 and had to apply for one of two roles made available that ended up being applied for by approx. 100 staff, current and new company.
- stay in current job with new contract and conditions.
Now #1 will be the likely option for many / most. Maybe not immediately but I’d say over the course of three years. Problem with that is, given the number of staff being laid off, you end up with quite a competition. You apply now for jobs and you may face 5 other candidates. Apply after mass layoff. You face a competition of 100s or 1000s.
#2 As I said, this is what mainly happened to me during previous acquisitions and it turned out that most staff that got the jobs came from the acquiring company as the new management was biased - obviously.
#3 Not gonna happen to most. Not even worth talking about it.
Bonus: #4 Promotions. Take it from someone that has worked in IT for most of his life (30+ years) and turns 50 soon. If you just got promoted with a pay raise, worry a tiny bit more. Again based on experience, the new company always takes the cost of any given department. If you have a pay range within that team of say $100k - $200k, the average is taken.l or looked at. If a $100k P5 is doing the same work and is as skilled as the $200k guy, and they only need one guy, guess who goes. And don’t think that the potential seniority of the 200k guy matters. Everybody will start from scratch so whether you are with VMware five years or ten years doesn’t matter. Here in the UK at least statutory redundancy pay is cut off at 12 years (12 weeks pay). So new company needs to consider the bottom line. To fire someone is still cheaper than to keep high paying staff.
I know guys in customer success that get paid a fortune. I was P5 and the guy in question - also a P5 - earned 35% more base without RSU or resulting pension or bonuses.
Anyway. Post is getting too long. You get the picture. Believe me or not. Doesn’t matter. At the end of the day we all speculate as no one but a handful execs know what’s gonna happen.
Do what you think is right for you. But if you stay around, do your job ! Otherwise just leave.
I'll just leave this here.
https://www.techspot.com/news/95573-what-has-broadcom-become.html
So what you are not liking at other place money, culture, benefits? I agree with your statement very few companies who can be close to VMware but let’s admit we all ruined such a great company.
We’ll said. This site is full of children spouting nonsense about a process that they no nothing about. “It’s all sh*t, the world is going to end, management are useless” blah blah blah.