Ciena Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than a year

Pros – One of the best work life balance companies I have worked till date.

Cons – Should create more career growth opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize talent in more effective way.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than a year

Pros – Facilities provided by the company to an individual employee are good
Infrastructure is also good.

Cons – Lot of legacy code..
Challenging work is given to some specific people only.Others have just side work.
Documentation is not encouraged for their products and code as well.

Advice to Senior Management – Ciena need more transparency in every management decision.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for less than a year

Pros – Good work culture.
No overwrite.
Good for girls as they are not allowed to stay beyond 7:30

Cons – limited domain work.
Focus on Ethernet only .

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Good Working Environment and better chance to grow.

Cons – Sometimes there is a partiality with Indians.

Advice to Senior Management – They must increase their work in India

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Ciena

Pros – Perfect balance between professional life and personal life.

Cons – Kind of work is not too challenging

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Ciena

Pros – Ciena has great potential and is often changing due to acquisitions and changing business climates. The company does reasonably well in reacting to these changes although it is often a painful process

Cons – Senior Management often has desired goals posted and communicated but middle management does little to create solid plans and steps to acheive those goals..

Current Employee – been working at Ciena

Pros – Balanced work and personal life
Laid back atmosphere
Good support in terms of R&D enviornment, tools, etc.
Opportunities to be exposed to one of the best optical technologies in the world

Cons – Very limited room for career advancement
Too much mid-level management overhead
Important positions are always held by people who are into process/bureaucracy

Advice to Senior Management – Estabish a culture to promote/encourage people with strong technical expertise. Otherwise, the company is becoming more and more like public sector where attending meetings has the highest priority.

Former Employee – worked at Ciena

Pros – Local Gym
Good location if you are in Ville Saint Laurent
Good startup for engineers eager to work closely with Low Cost Manufacturing
Health and Dental benefits are reasonable.

Cons – Senior Management inherited from the Nortel Era in Montreal.
Very dysfunctional at the level of cross organizational activities.
Very short-sighted middle managers and no long term vision
No formal training. A lot of self preservationist attitude that make you sick to your stomach.

In brief, the management at Montreal Ciena is the wash off from the bankrupt Nortel days. Unfortunately the flagship products are that of the Ciena Ottawa/Montreal which makes the long term vision very bleak if head office in Linthicum, MD does not do anything about it.
Very "clicky" and very hard to break into the ranks for the established "hierarchies". A lot of arrogance and attitude. Zero chance for progress and promotion.

Overall, a place to start with your career but not beyond 3 years maximum. If you are ambitious and looking for new challenges then it will be a hard place to stay in for very long unless you get accepted in the established clicks. You could be the most educated person of the bunch and yet managers will only think of their service impact on the short term rather than benefiting the company with the expertise of the talented and educated professionals.

Advice to Senior Management – To Gary Smith, the time has come to shuffle the middle and senior managers and directors of Montreal office. This is the only way to save the company. New blood and new culture need to develop in Montreal to align with the established vision of the headquarters in Maryland.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena

Pros – The people....technology....great benefits....ability to accomplish amazing tasks when everyone works as a team....nice facilities....and again the people, some really great people work at Ciena.

Cons – this new upper management team seems to have zero direction, major decisions take forever to be made these days, salaries very much out of whack as some areas pay very well and others have not had raises in years. some areas overworked while constantly having to justify their job. outsourcing effecting quality of product.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't fix it if it works....stand behind what you preach.....stop lying.....outsourcing is not the answer, just because it looks good on a spreadsheet doesn't mean it is best for ciena nor does it mean it will work....get the company going in the same direction, it still acts as two not as one.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena

Pros – -. Ethernet Technology
-. Converge Ethernet and Optical into single platform
-.

Cons – -. Reduce management to employee ratio

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend