Verizon reviews

This is the part where I hope to explain some of the shortcomings of working at such a big, bloated company that is Verizon Wireless. You can be the dumbest, laziest person on the face of the earth, yet still get a "Performing" annual review and at least a 3% merit raise. On the other hand, you can be the smartest person in your department (maybe even with a Ph.D.) yet still get the SAME performance review and merit raise. No one is allowed to receive a "Leading" performance review - really, why bother having that as a choice? Actually I don't have a Ph.D., but I do have a Bachelor's degree from a tier 1 university as well as working on a Master's - and I make less compensation than someone who's worked in the same position for 15 years and possesses only a high school diploma. Does that make sense? last time I checked, this wasn't a union shop. I suppose this is an example analogy of the power of compounding interest! (3% every year adds up very quickly) There seems to be a very inconsistent method towards promotions. Many employees at HQ location in Basking Ridge somehow increased their title levels just before the Alltel merger. They are doing the same jobs as before, so why did they get automatic promotions? It will take an act of God to get promoted otherwise. Internal jobs are very hard to come by. I suppose that is somewhat true everywhere, but in my observations, positions are filled based on _who_ you know as opposed to _what_ you know. For better or worse, networking is the only way to go if you want to move up the ladder in your career. That is, if you are even motivated enough to switch jobs - like I said, the long-timers have no need to take risks to improve their self-worth by education or switching jobs, because they have it made financially. If you are young and ambitious, be ready to be disappointed trying to make a move in your career. Like some who have commented, perhaps we should let some of these HR people go, so they can experience what it's like to be on the OTHER side of the table for a change.

Verizon's Silicon Valley office is a glorified assembly line for VZ executives in New Jersey. You are told what to build by executives who've never worked in a real tech company, and who frankly don't give a damn about any rank-and-file employee in San Jose. As an example of poor culture in the San Jose office, as of 2015, only 2 of the original 10 Intel Media executives remain. All the rest have either been pushed out by Verizon or got fed up with Verizon and left. Lunch time conversations with rank-and-file employees almost ALWAYS touch on how horrible Verizon's culture is compared to what we had at Intel. It's actually funny seeing how much the average OnCue employee dislikes Verizon's corporate culture. As of 2015, almost everyone I spoke to who came from Intel has told me they are looking for new jobs on the side (especially the most talented ones). To many here, Verizon is more a steady pay check than a place to develop one's career in Silicon Valley. All-in-all, the cultural clash going from a 300-person start-up at Intel into corporate Verizon did NOT go well--primarily because Verizon came in and wiped clean the original Intel Media executive team, and installed their own VPs in black suits from New Jersey to run OnCue. Absolutely terrible cultural integration.