A Great Place to Work, Going through a Transition
Pros
The People: Your average individual contributor at Rackspace is smart, motivated, and treats other Rackers like Friends and Family (one of the company's Core Values) The Environment: It varies by position, of course, but most work is results-driven rather than punch-the-clock. I started out in the support world, which of course was more butts-in-seats focused, but the other positions I've held have been focused on what was accomplished, rather than how many hours I'm physically in my seat. The main San Antonio office ("The Castle") is very nice, although for some roles a bit less open plan would be preferred. The Opportunities: Rackspace is a company that rewards results rather than background. A go-getter with vision can go very far in this company, and it's great for a younger person starting out on their IT career. Because of the huge breadth of the company's portfolio (and that of partners like AWS and Azure), you can get exposure to almost any technology you wish. If you get bored after a year or two, change your career without having to change companies! The pay issue: This is Pro and Con, depending on your perspective. I've seen a lot of people mention pay on here as subpar. Frankly, I've never felt undercompensated. I started fresh out of college in support making a combined $67K between salary and bonus. Six years later, I'm clearing more than $160K (salary + commission) doing pre-sales engineering. This is all while living in San Antonio where you can easily buy a decent 2800 sq. ft. house for $250K. Sure, property taxes are high here, but there is NO STATE INCOME TAX. I believe that if you work hard, produce results, and actually learn to negotiate, you will do just fine. However, if you are expecting to just punch the clock every day, do mediocre work, and get a 10% raise every year, you are kidding yourself. Also don't expect to start at the top and get a big signing bonus. Rackspace brings people in at the low-middle range of pay typically and quickly rewards success.
Cons
The Old Guard: Some long time Rackers (I've crossed the six year mark) have a pretty significant sense of entitlement. You can see this reflected in many of the reviews on Glassdoor; aversion to change can be high, or at least to change that people don't like. Don't expect to become a senior person and just coast along without making new a valuable contributions. Rackspace gives you the flexibility to build your own career path, but that means you actually have to do it, not just expect it to be handed to you. Macro environment: It's true that Rackspace has struggled a bit in the last few years to find its path. While "Fanatical Support" was the original core of the business, for awhile the company threw its full force behind its OpenStack public cloud. Now that the realization has come that you just can't set up shop as a pure AWS competitor these days, we're back to the Fanatical roots, but also overlayed on top of AWS and Azure. I think the company is on a good path now, the question is if they can execute well enough to pull it off. If stock price fluctuations are something you can't handle, seek a job elsewhere. Management: Echoing what others have said, way too many layers of management, and managers whose only job is to manage other managers. Cliques: There can be technical cliques for whatever the latest new thing is. First it was OpenStack, then Azure, now AWS. However, this is the reality at any tech company. The pay issue: This is Pro and Con, depending on your perspective. I've seen a lot of people mention pay on here as subpar. Frankly, I've never felt undercompensated. I started fresh out of college in support making a combined $67K between salary and bonus. Six years later, I'm clearing more than $160K (salary + commission) doing pre-sales engineering. This is all while living in San Antonio where you can easily buy a decent 2800 sq. ft. house for $250K. Sure, property taxes are high here, but there is NO STATE INCOME TAX. I believe that if you work hard, produce results, and actually learn to negotiate, you will do just fine. However, if you are expecting to just punch the clock every day, do mediocre work, and get a 10% raise every year, you are kidding yourself. Also don't expect to start at the top and get a big signing bonus. Rackspace brings people in at the low-middle range of pay typically and quickly rewards success.
