Red Hat

In the 2 years I've been at Red Hat, what's stood out to me the most are how friendly people are at the company and the company's commitment to developing the best products they can.

The people I have worked with at Red Hat, for the majority of the time, love the company they work for and the work they do. Red Hat's culture promotes flexibility and respect for one's time (most of the time). The folks I meet are all passionate people with interesting hobbies outside of work and for some, their work is their hobby.

I always say, work for a company you believe in, and Red Hat makes it easy to believe in the company. The products we deliver continue to lead the market and even though competition is fiercer now than 5y ago. Maybe I drank the Kool Aid, but it gives me the confidence to do my job.

Senior leadership always feels out of reach. Generally, the field only hears from and meets with senior leadership during all-hands meetings or during annual team reviews. Interactions with them feel transactional and always business related. A lack of relatedness is my impression.

Taking into account current market and economic conditions, it's understandable how one might not receive a raise or the lack of promotions. That being said, the feedback process during the promotion process is not transparent. It requires proactivity to reach out to upper levels of management to understand why someone may not have been promoted.

It seems every 1-2 years there is a reorganization and shuffle of teams and management. Sometimes this makes it so all your previous year's effort and work is null. That makes it hard to want to continue putting in consistent effort to drive sales, opportunities, and more, when you don't know if you will get the credit for the work you put in.

All that being said, the career progression for SAs is fairly straightforward. I can't say that I feel like I am being advocated for or provided with the tools to advance my career here, but I can say that at least on paper the requirements to get to the next level are clear and concise. How it's decided if you meet those requirements is unclear. Therefore, it's unknown to me if senior leadership acknowledges my growth and progress.

Red Hat is full of seasoned and experienced veterans from the IT/software industry. However, there is not much in place to grow younger and newer talent. There needs to be a program to promote the growth of Associate SAs.