Mar 2, 2016
SDET
Anonymous employee
Rackspace Technology reviews
3.5
60% would recommend to a friend
Amar Maletira
48% approve of CEO
44% positive business outlook
Rackspace Technology has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3,773 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Rackspace Technology employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).
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4K reviews
3.0
Oct 13, 2015
A Great Career Stepping Stone
Current employee, more than 5 years
San Antonio, TX
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
If you are new to the Information Technology industry then Rackspace is a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills. To this day, there are many bright minds employed at Rackspace. Being in the vicinity of these people and working with them on the endless flow of projects will expose you to scenarios that will sharpen your skills in ways you can't imagine. The work flow is fast paced and nonstop. Being assigned to 3 or more simultaneous projects at once with hundreds more in queue is typical. This means that there is a lot of work to be done and your help is needed. Administrators, Account Managers, Sales, and Management are all exposed to every facet of the business. It is true that everyone is customer-facing. Cross-platform development is highly encouraged since talent in all departments is desperately needed. There is a strong certification program called Rackspace University and the Open Cloud Academy to assist with skills development. Certification kiosks are on premises and grants are issued quite freely to those wishing to advance academically. Rackspace's core product is based upon developing consultants to support almost every facet of IT infrastructure. It uses a call center model as the vehicle to deliver services to clients hosting thier data center resources with the company. The Launch of the Open Cloud 2011/2012 resulted in a surge of opportunity, explosive growth for the company, and a hiring frenzy. There is a bit of a festive environment to encourage socializing, however, this only exists on day shifts. It is not as intense as it used to be but it has not disappeared altogether. There is a great tolerance for employees with family responsibilities and time off is generous. People with special needs for a particular shift are entertained as well. Your experience will depend heavily on who your Manager is.
Cons
Since latter 2013, morale has been on a downward trend. This was ignited by the board's announcement to sell the company which resulted in the "great brain drain of 2014." Ultimately, nearly 20% of senior workforce (including the CEO) jumped ship and pursued other opportunities which resulted in a lack of talent within Rackspace's workforce to support their products. Customer churn increased, industry trust waned, and share values have been on a downward trend since. A smokescreen tactic was implemented in the form of accelerating the development of the Open Cloud Academy in order to develop "raw talent" (individuals without much prior/relevant training) in order to maintain workforce headcount. Many were awarded titles and responsibilities far higher than their skill level. A secret layoff of 100+ individuals in an instance was also exposed which further destroyed trust within the workforce for management. Major inexplicable infrastructure issues perpetuated these complex politics. The buddy system is very strong here. Many are advanced up the corporate ladder simply because they are "cool". There is alot of great talent at "the bottom" that never see a promotion because they do not socialize like most. Instead, they are the type that tend to be obsessed with thier craft, somewhat awkward, beautiful nerds. If conquering the corporate ladder is your agenda, simply hang out and sip beer with as many people as you can and you will advance. If self-development is your agenda, try to find a quiet spot and focus. You will find quite a few others in those dark places as well. From top to bottom management the majority are technically talent-less. The systems administrators are the real product and they are not always treated as such. The context of an administrator's work is not evaluated at all, instead, the quantity is highly valued. This is because the type of work administrators perform cannot be interpreted by technically talent-less management. This discourages technicians from taking on heavy projects since they will be penalized for working "one" project for the day instead of "hundreds" of light projects. Yes, this is how many climb the corporate ladder very quickly by manipulating statistics instead of contributing true value to projects. With that said, it can be very hard to focus on a singular project. Pressure from management that want to win statistical awards and the typical noise of a call center coupled with frequent interruptions from coworkers and phone calls can be a hindrance. If you can balance these factors, you will win.
2.0
May 11, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook
Pros
Got to work with some of the most computer savvy individuals.
Cons
Communication skills seriously lacking. Too many cliques does not promote unity. False narratives in core values.
Viewing 118 - 120 of 3,773 Reviews
