Ciena Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – The Ciena can do attitude, just get the job done. Good benefits and pay. Good people and a commitment to training and learning

Cons – Bureaucracy introduced since the Nortel deal is breathtaking- no wonder Nortel went bust !
Middle management are mostly Nortel and its hard to workout who took over who.
A huge change in the way customers are supported - an arrogant like it or lump it approach.
Metrics a big focus, but CSAT & ESAT pretty much ignored.

Advice to Senior Management – Cut the Bureaucracy before we all go the same way Nortel did. Cant you see adopting the working processes of a failed company is a mistake.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – Great life work balance.
Long term commitment.
Friendly helpful colleagues.
The sector is stably going up in general in the next few years, so the work stablility is good.
Personal workload depends on the team you work for and the importance of your role.

Cons – project lifecycle is usually 1 year per major release.
The working environemnt is not very aggressive, so if seeking good resume in short time, this is not the place.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time

Pros – - Good people, helpful and smart
- Interesting work
- Decent gym (free), good coffee, and very good cafeteria food (note this is in Kanata, not Carling Lab 10)
- Stock purchase plan

Cons – - RRSP matching plan is sub-standard compared to others in Ottawa
- Management constantly over-commits to customers, then expects the rank and file to work evenings and weekends to meet these deadlines. Employees who don't meet these deadlines are punished via layoffs and/or poor performance reviews.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire more people or set more realistic deadlines.

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

Pros – Nice people to work with

Cons – Planning is not theremneed more employee comeunication

Advice to Senior Management – Everything is base don events

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Ciena is a good place to work with an open culture, Good colleagues and is a technology leader in Optical industry. Ciena has been doing OK in a competitive industry. Ciena is fair in its policies and compensation/benefits are comparable to industry.

Cons – Ciena's line of business has good amount of competition and low margins. This limits the bonuses etc. Not too many companies in the same technology domain.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Technology innovation; leader in Optical transport

Cons – Too many ex Nortel personnel in middle management roles, stifling innovation
Terrible HR personnel and unprofessional practices

Advice to Senior Management – Sack Business Ops bean counters who are basically clueless and add no value .

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ciena full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Flexible working schedule and good working environment
Good work and life balance, ok compensation and benefits
There are some intelligent people

Cons – Management is the problem, too many layers of middle management
not much career opportunities, sometimes unreasonable project schedules

Advice to Senior Management – simplify management structure

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

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

Pros – It's good to work with good equipments, good hardware and software. The company is not so big and well managed. There are a lot of opportunities for growth.

Cons – As a small company, HR is not very good, specially if you are not an employee from the headquarters. Also the employment process is too slow. It takes 2, sometimes 3 months to complete the whole process of interviewing and hiring someone.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in people and cut some of the bureaucracy so the company can act faster if needed.

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 – 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 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