Fun culture, engaging work - Senior Software Engineer Garmin Employee Review

5.0
28 Nov 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Garmin's culture is relaxed but motivating. I've seen senior management dress up for Halloween, but we're doing serious work too. Lots of intelligent engineers, so it's a great place to continually hone your skills. They are committed to their employees and hire slowly to avoid the need to lay off later when projects finish. Garmin is improving its training offerings, both technical and inter-personal, and in the last couple of years has gotten much better in that area. Because of the various divisions and the vertical integration style of the company, there are usually lots of internal opportunities if you are not happy with your current position. Many of my coworkers have transferred in or out of my group from/to other groups. Overall, Garmin does a pretty good job of maintaining a culture that feels almost like a startup (outside of Aviation, which necessarily is more process driven).

Cons

Slow hiring means that we are always pretty busy as we could almost always use some more people. Promotions are still guided mainly by time, not skill level. Management can be slow on the public recognition of good efforts, but they are working on that.

Explore other reviews about Garmin

5.0
20 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

People are great, work balance is fair and fulfilling

Cons

Not the flashiest benefits like some tech companies have

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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