I was in the sales/analysts part of the company, and Red Hat's sales organization has a less open-source culture than previous jobs where I worked close to developers. I worked medium-long hours, and especially long hours around quarter ends, which diluted my hourly wage to "not worth it". I used Windows/Excel/PowerPoint, and our team did things the way you do them at all US / multinational mega-corps. I felt there were too many layers of management between me and the customer, and that it would take forever to rise through at least 3 of the 6 layers of the corporation's management (just like a pyramid scheme) to get good compensation. The days of stock options ended sometime between 2012-2013 for the bottom-level developers/analysts. I think even first-level managers still can get stock options, but the chance for real wealth has past. Most of these cons apply to most corporate jobs. I improved my Excel skills to even higher levels. I didn't learn or improve other valuable skills that I can make money with, so personal growth was limited. I was praised for my effort and results, but never rewarded with more money, more time, or better work. I discovered my marginal earnings / hour were better managing my personal investments and fulfilling orders and improving the efficiency of my own little business during lunch, so I quit after 1 year. My managers said they were sad when I announced I wanted to leave, but didn't offer anything more to keep me. I think actions speak louder than words, and Red Hat's actions said it only valued me as a $28/hr (pre-tax) / $21/hr (post-tax) Excel and salesforce.com jockey. Red Hat offered no way of improving me into a higher-value role, so I left. I now make $35/hr on my lowest-value tasks, and can work as little or as much as I want, when I want, and still make enough to live where I like, and do anything I want all day, every day.
