VMware

see above

As with any company, it all depends on your manager and the culture of your group or business unit.

Equal Pay: This is tied to promotions and unfortunately, I don’t see (qualified) women getting promoted at the same rates as their male peers. This is probably not just a gender issue but general nepotism and favoritism. Promotion criteria aren’t clearly published or communicated and promotions seem to happen without question, if you have the right people vouching for you. That being said, I was compensated generously for my level (Director), even though I was keen on moving up to Senior Director.

Career Advancement: See comments in ‘Equal Pay’. I was not happy about losing my headroom
when our SVP put his ‘guy’ as my manager. It was unnecessary and a slap in the face.

But I’ll also say that VMware was piloting a ‘sponsor’ program where certain executives were paired w/ some women directors to help coach and vouch for them in their career advances. I was fortunate to be in this program and my sponsor went out of his way to conduct a 360 review for me. These are always tough to read but he presented the feedback in a neutral way and told me to ignore the obviously spiteful and unhelpful bits. He knows the games people play 😉

Supportive Culture: Meh. Again, depends on the manager. There were way too many agendas and political games to figure out what role I could play in that circus. My immediate manager was fine to me (respectful, approachable) but he and his manager (the SVP) didn’t really do much to help with career advancement and coaching.

Family Friendly: I had flexibility to deal with family/home issues. No issues here.