Well-run, well-managed technology venture with a leading-edge portfolio
Pros
Opportunities to work on leading-edge hyper-convergence solutions. Well thought-out and clearly-communicated business strategy to which everyone adheres. No confusion about what to do or when to do it. This includes managing the rapid change in this business. Unique career development/reward and recognition strategy. One of the very few places that I have worked where they did what was right and good for me (and in the long term, right for the company) even though it made life more difficult for my manager in the short term. Highly skilled and carefully-selected people and managers, in general. Every place has dead wood, but the process at SimpliVity keeps them to a minimum, brings them into line, or gets rid of them. The company makes a genuine attempt at work-life balance, even when the pace is frenetic. Good team-mates and managers who help, support, and appreciate your efforts, right up to the CEO. A good salary and benefits package is great, but regularly being told that you do a good job is highly motivating and rewarding. Autonomy and responsibility devolved to the team and the individual. I had the opportunity to propose, design and implement solutions. The company has an excellent process for extracting learning from things that go wrong, making things right, and then improving the process. This does not involve beatings or fault-finding. Consequently, it encourages you to take risks, make mistakes and be genuinely creative without worrying about the consequences of failure. I took some big risks here, and probably did some of the best work in my 30-year career. Good HR team - communicative and effective. "OK", you ask, "if SimpliVity is such a good gig, why did you leave"? A wise man once said, "some people are no longer suitable for the mission". I constantly evaluate my performance, work-life balance, personal life goals, and my responsibilities to the people I love. There were things that I put off for many years working in high-pressure jobs. I could not attend to these and give full attention to my job. SimpliVity bent over backwards to accommodate me and I was very impressed and gratified that they tried to make it work. We parted with mutual respect, and I remain a shareholder and a strong supporter. I'm confident in their success and therefore have no problem strongly recommending SimpliVity as an employer.
Cons
Not much. There are few better places to work in my 30-year experience. Although SimpliVity is a rapidly-growing corporation, it is still a VC funded enterprise in start-up mode. It competes in a rapidly-evolving and dynamic business sector. Therefore, the work pace is fast, hours can be long, and there are very high expectations of you. No-compete agreement. Like most MA startups, they require a very broad no-compete. Because SimpliVity is a convergence solution, their business is, in fact, very broad. It encompasses technologies that include storage, computing, networking, deduplication, compression, WAN optimization. As a technical writer, this does not affect me as much - I can find work in industry or pharma. However, I am opposed to non-competes because I believe that they have a net negative affect on the economy and on innovation. Most of what they strive to achieve can be accomplished in a less restrictive non-disclosure agreement.
