Dell

I worked in the server division as a firmware engineer.

My management was great – hands-off and very strongly supported their team members.

The work/life balance was awesome, as management allowed you to have your own work style, hours, etc.

There were some very smart people here who are experts in their respective subject matters, from whom you can learn a lot.

There are a lot of career advancement possibilities here since there are many engineering titles.

You definitely get recognized for your work if you make it visible, and you will get rewarded for it.

Personally, I was very happy with the team environment and the confidence of management to allow their engineers to make his/her own decisions.

There are a lot of people with a cruising mentality here. The bar for entry isn't the highest, so you won't be surrounded by really smart people. The work is interesting and challenging at first, but being a server company, you're not really working on the most cutting-edge things. I'd classify Dell as a reactive company versus an innovative company. There's not a lot of money invested in R&D. I feel like while engineering has a big presence, the focus is more on making money in sales and marketing. I just didn't feel challenged enough and wasn't fulfilled with the problems that I was solving. There aren't as many perks as compared to the tier 1 companies.

There needs to be a higher bar for entry.

There needs to be a way to better motivate some of the longer-tenured folks here to perform.

Spend more on R&D to attract a higher level of talent.