Political minefield - be careful and watch your back
Pros
Market leader in Linux. This opens a lot of doors. Most people are really excellent to work with. Strong sales force in the UK. RHEL and Linux is really the company strength. All of the other technologies are poor relations. Pay was good.
Cons
Red Hat UK and EMEA is riddled with management who really have no idea what they are doing, especially on the Services side. People have been promoted from within without any real ideal of what they are doing, or what good looks like. EMEA Services Directors have come up from the ranks with no experience of other companies, and as Red Hat grows this is a massive problem. There is a massive blame culture and infighting amongst the divisions. The Services management team seem to have a pathological hatred of the sales team, which is ridiculous and divisive. There is no sense of a wider team, so everyone is scoring points. When speaking to VP levels, there is acknowledgement of the lack of skill and experience in other divisions, but their advice is to accept this and know when to run. If you are looking at working in Services as a consultant, be prepared for long long hours, endless travel and no development. You are a resource, that is all. Don't expect your Service Delivery Manager to pay you any attention either. You are better off as a contractor unless you want Red Hat on your CV.
