Hewlett Packard Enterprise

It all depends on which group you get into. Some groups are given nice office amenities, good compensation, have managers that respect work-life balance, and there could be career advancement for you, if you plan on mucking through the ranks of middle management.

For myself though, I did not get so lucky. The nice thing about my job was getting exposure to bleeding-edge hardware technology and exposure to the greater industry.

I can't really recommend HPE to the technician, engineer, or developer. But I think it's a good place for a newly minted MBA who wants to get his/her feet wet in project management, Six Sigma training, or learning how to properly downsize and gut a company. Whatever you do, don't plan on having a career here.

I think the majority of people complain about the lack of career advancement, managers who can only motivate by fear, the fear of constant layoffs, and stagnant wages.

For me personally, the worst part was the management. I came across many middle managers who would not work together and could only motivate their subordinates with fear. I think I may have been in a particularly abusive organization that was not the norm, but I stay concerned about groups run by egotistical and narcissistic directors and managers who are looking for a slave-master relationship rather than a mentor-mentee or even just employee and employer. You do not want to work in a hostile work environment, and for me, it was living hell.

With our top-tier customers, HPE has a very bad reputation. So it's hard to use HPE as a stepping stone into better companies like Facebook, Google, or Apple through direct contacts you'll make at HPE.

The compensation sucks. And if you're in a technical position, you'll be competing with insourced and outsourced contract employees who will do your job for $20/hr.

And finally, the scores of oblivious, finger-pointing, and uninformed Project Managers will make your suffering even worse. They try to interject their less-than-valuable input at every point of engagement, whether it's necessary or not. And this is just to 'show value'. Then, after you've done all the work and put forth the lion's share of the effort, they take all the credit and get bonuses you won't see as a technician, engineer, or developer.

I learned over time that HPE was not the company you wanted to work for; it's the one at which you're stuck.

Start laying off more middle managers. You'll scare the remaining duds, and they will shape up.

But other than that, I have no advice. I'm pretty sure the senior managers know what they're doing.

HP was once a company that could use its financial muscle to compete in emerging technology markets where their competition had much less funding and brand recognition, like IBM Compatible PCs. This proved a cash cow, but was a double-edged sword. As technology costs became lower and hardware was commodified, product margins shrunk.

HP was not prepared for the anarchic nature of the markets created by the internet, and they've shown HP cannot stay relevant just by consolidation with newer, potentially relevant companies.

All companies die, and senior management is bleeding this animal dry and then will auction off the carcass when the time strikes. If that's not your plan, then I'm even happier I left.