F5

Interesting work. Ok pay. Ok benefits.

[Compared to Seattle tech companies.]

Don't join F5 in America. The CEO is optimizing his spreadsheet. If you are dev/test in India or support in Mexico, you have a great future. Everyone else should be nervous. Over 50 should be very nervous.

Recent layoffs included rock stars that would have been great assets in cloud migration. This "pivot" is really about cutting expenses and impressing Wall Street in the short term. The new C-suite ignores (or is ignorant of) the fact that intelligent, high-level networking on hardware and in cloud are substantially the same. Inexpensive new employees will not be able to backfill the lost experience of the recent layoff for years. Core markets (majority of profit) are being put at risk.

Ciena's annual layoff (CEO's last company) has come to F5. The CEO asked for employee commitment but has not committed to employees.

Lay off the Harvard Business School/McKinsey consultants.

Jinga requires talent and experience. Leverage it instead of laying it off.

Evaluate by revenue instead of $/head.

Cost savings in India are trivial compared to the disruption and risk to F5’s core market.

Short-term stock price gains don't signal a bright future for employees.