I got an offer from Akamai. Can anyone from inside tell me how is the company doing. How are the employees feeling about the company. What is the level of satisfaction of the employees. And do they have perks like free lunches or snacks or gym. I might be joining their Cambridge office in their security business unit as a software developer.
The company does stuff at amazing scale but it's all built on a shitty foundation, enforced by ever more draconian cost cutting measures to appease shareholders, and terrible senior leadership who are willfully ignorant (or intentionally misled by those below them) of serious problems. Akamai has no hope for future growth as they have already captured the top end of the market who actually want their managed, professional services, sales team and faxed contracts business model — they cannot (technically) and will not look to a self service no contract billing model to capture the rest of the market. Add to that the fucking siloing and politics, it's the worst. I've never seen a company so fractured and with so much back stabbing, or one who's organizational disarray is immediately obvious to the external world simply by using their products. Nothing talks to anything else, and we expect our customers to be the go-between our own fucking systems. Pays me well though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't work in Cambridge, there's multiple buildings though, with different facilities. I believe Cambridge employees get some external gym membership benefit as well as things like parking or transportation benefits. No free snacks, paid vending machines only. Security is a massive priority, and is getting lots of good attention. If you like security, seems like a good part of the company to be in as far as excitement and opportunity.
Take the offer if you are ok with being laid off every 6 months or so
It's about once a year and I'm sure security BU is never affected.
It really depends on your team and your boss. Some people love it here and some people are miserable. There aren’t many in-office perks if you’re a snacks-and-beer type, but personally I’m a work/life balance type. Comp is fine, a little better if you’re a high performer. Perks are more in the form of RSUs if you get them and ESPP. Health insurance and all that jazz is pretty much fine.
I worked there for several years. Overall it's full of people just keeping their heads down and doing their jobs. Basically no perks: no food, snacks, whatever. No gym AFAIK, though there may be one in the new building they're constructing? Employee satisfaction is average. Not a lot of drive. Compensation suuuucks compared to FAANG - I more than doubled my comp going to G. They say "we only hire the best people" and "we position our comp and benefits at the median of the market" as if those two things can be true simultaneously. I miss having a cube to myself, though.
This is pretty accurate. Comp is as good as it gets I think without getting into FANG. Work is 9-5. But yes not much drive. I've been here a couple of years and haven't really accomplished anything which makes me sad but I'm in one of the old BUs, security might be very different. I haven't seen any politics but it might just be above my pay grade. From what I hear about Cisco, akamai is much better. People are generally nice. Like I can think of only one pure asshole from the top of my head. Don't expect stock growth.