Good company with too few FTE opportunities - Software Development Manager T-Mobile Employee Review

3.0
Jul 27, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

CEO's done exceptionally well with rebuilding T-Mobile's brand. While T-Mobile is now eking out a small profit, his efforts are expected (by many) to result in the company being acquired by another larger profitable company, e.g. Comcast. Stock option grants to all employees, when the company first went public, were generous. Stock is now trading at its highest point ever resulting in significant return for those who received the initial grants. As an industry disruptor, it is (was, for me) an exciting time to work at the 'UnCarrier' who is grabbing the lion's share of new subscribers -- many of whom are switching from Verizon and AT&T. Annual bonuses, tied to the company's performance, the past two years have been especially generous.

Cons

IT workload is incredibly high and constantly shifting in its priorities. While the CEO's vision and strategy are sound, execs across the company (who are creating work for IT) are not aligned. There is zero capacity planning conducted for IT resources which results in many teams having too much work, too little time, and too few resources to complete their work on schedule with high-quality results. IT FTE growth opportunities (promotions and lateral moves) are sorely lacking. Within the past 5 years, especially after the AT&T acquisition failed, the IT org evolved from one leveraging a few number of contractors to one employing a major number of contractors. In early 2016, within IT, the FTE/Contractor ratio was 1/7. The Org's current ratio goal is 1/4 yet there remain far too few FTE openings. IT promotions are typically limited to outsiders and insiders who are talkative extroverts who may or may not be successful with solutions delivery. Yes, as within most companies, it is not what you know -- it's who you know. Merit increases are stingy, e.g. 2% annually unless you are a star (1%'er) performer. Formal performance reviews were eliminated a couple of years ago yet IT employees are still, twice annually, stack-ranked (although, fortunately, the bottom performers are not terminated). Initially, the elimination of numerical ratings for employee performance seemed to be a positive change. While, now, employees may have formal goals documented, their performance ratings (during Q1 bonus season and during Q2/Q3 merit season) are now far more subjective than during the days when formal performance reviews were conducted with ratings granted to individual goals. Diversity is sorely lacking. IT org is comprised of mostly H1-B visa holders the majority of whom are East Indian males.

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5.0
Mar 22, 2016
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Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Training and "green days" to work on training courses online, team activities for teambuilding, excellent benefits including up to a 10% yearly bonus (merit-based), tuition reimbursement, extra insurance options besides health insurance (pet insurance, free life insurance up to 1.5x yearly salary), stock purchase options and yearly stock award to each employee. One of my favorite benefits is job swaps - so long as your manager clears it, you can swap jobs with an employee from another related department for up to a couple months to gain insight and experience into what the other department does from day to day. I left my last company as it had become a bad environment, and after joining with T-Mobile I realized it was one of the best decisions I've ever made. There are very few days where I wake up not wanting to go to work, and I learn something new every day. When I come across a process I'm not familiar with, my teammates are more than happy to provide on-the-spot training, or schedule a time that works for both of us to do so. Above all, the managers set you up to succeed rather than to fail - they want you to do well, and do everything in their power to make sure you have the tools to do well.

Cons

There's some of the same political bs that any company has, but my team has two excellent managers that make work enjoyable. There are a couple personality issues within the team, as happens with any job, but overall everyone gets along. As far as training goes, there wasn't a whole ton initially (though I believe it's more due to the nature of the job - it's impossible to condense everything into a couple week training course).

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T-Mobile Response
9y
Thanks so much for taking the time to write this -- we love hearing how much you love coming to work! Your words were spot on when you said your team wants you to "do well". That's exactly what we want for all of our team members! The nature of our business is constantly changing and we know how important it is to provide good benefits and equip you with the training and development you need to be successful. We're glad you're taking full advantage of all of it. As we continue to grow and evolve, so will our training and tools. If you ever feel like you're not getting enough of what you need, though, talk it over with your manager and they'll help you get back on track. Thanks again for your feedback and your dedication to T-Mobile. -- T-Mobile Careers Team
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