Pros
No micromanagement. You're on your own. You lose alone, but the wins belong to the team.
Cons
Let me start with HR. They have no seat at the table. They don't advise, they don't influence, They're recruiters who throw perks at the Sunrise office to look like a fun company. They can't change the culture, which is individualism at its best. Not their fault, the CHRO they just hired is also a recruiter, read his FTNT experience, his focus is Talent Acquisition. This company is an internal competition like any other, but management has fully adopted a "look out for number one" mindset and uses it every single day. Middle management is the worst. An engineer puts in individual effort to stand out, plays politics with their boss, and gets picked as the new manager, who from that point on only cares about his own career. They are not there to develop anyone. They're not leaders, they just want to go up the corporate ladder, period. Like everywhere else, specially a startup like Fortinet (yes, still a startup), they don't share information because information is power. That's why they hate team meetings, because you'd actually learn things, especially tribal knowledge. They'll postpone and cancel scheduled meetings whenever they feel like it. Our meetings have to be in English, and that's where everything falls apart. The communication in English is rough, not just imperfect, genuinely hard to follow. No manager, director, or VP makes any effort to improve it. On top of that, they are competing with you. If you're good and getting visibility, they will quietly try to keep you under control. The only way up is if they're moving and they trust you enough to fill their spot. If you're not in their circle or you don't play nice, you're done. The moment you're marked as difficult, you never recover from it.