An Engineer's Company - Customer Facing Garmin Employee Review

4.0
11 Apr 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun products. Highly successful and stable. Tons of company spirit and brand loyalty. Talented people. Great benefits (healthcare, vacation, savings, etc). Top notch facilities with all the tools that you need to do a great job. Informal culture. Politics are mild compared to many companies. Cultural focus on service.

Cons

- Below average compensation (~20% lower in my case) and barely cost of living raises. No bonuses and not much reward for people who consistently put in 150% or more. Stock grants have been anemic. - Management charisma and communications are weak, especially from the top. Used to be that Min wandered around to speak to the teams. This in itself was uplifting. Now the 8th floor is a fortress. - A two class culture: engineering and "other". A lack of respect for associates who are not in engineering roles. - A flat organization with little career development potential. Little systematic succession planning. Moves between projects do not bring much advancement, especially in pay. - Too many "email meetings" and committee decisions. Need more delegation of trust & empowerment. - Conservative -sometimes overly so, which is a reflection of the senior leadership philosophy. - Too much focus on product technology. A "we know better" attitude.

Explore other reviews about Garmin

5.0
23 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great work life balance Good people

Cons

Lower salary compared to market

3.0
3 Apr 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good benefits and work life balance. It's a good culture and I've never worked at a place where your immediate peers are this helpful and pleasant to work with, even across teams and offices. If you want to just come in and do just what is required for your job and go home with the knowledge you have a stable job, this is the perfect place to work. I'd only recommend working here if you just want a job, but don't care about a career.

Cons

There is poor career advancement, especially if you aren't male. Leadership does not care about leading people. The RTO has made working here less appealing. The excuse that you can't collaborate unless you are in the same building makes no sense when you work with people in 6 different countries. It is about control and appearances, all due to incredibly poor senior leadership strategies. The pay is also low and so is the quality of the software you work on. Leadership likes to talk quality, but they like fast and cheap. They will not support you in actual software quality nor implement changes to improve it. The same issues happen over and over without improvement.

9
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