Genentech Employee Reviews for Anonymous Employee

"Love the culture at this company. There's a social event every month."

"It is a good company to work."

"I can speak only for what I and numerous other colleagues, who are all well-experienced engineering contractors, often say in private to one another about how we are treated within our respective project teams in our department, which deals interdepartmentally with the development of combination devices. When I first came to the company my manager proactively warned me that "There are LOTS of land-mines here!”, particularly in dealing interdepartmentally with the device team. But what kind of a department constantly requires its engineering contractors, whom it titles as “managers”, to walk on egg shells and contend with preexisting bad internal politics originating from mid-level management in a different department? Although each of us is well-educated and has many years of broad experience and accomplishments in the industry, our actions and contributions are frequently blocked because of internal politics stemming from immature mid-level management. For example, one interdepartmental manager will go out of his way to whine whenever we take the slightest initiative necessary to get the required work done on time. The departments deliberately work in silos and so there is poor collaboration interdepartmentally. Yes, there are regular interdepartmental meetings; but one cannot speak both factually and freely in them lest it might rub one manager the wrong way. Behind the scenes, initiative and drive are actively discouraged and contractors know that they will be chastised even for making a simple phone call to another departmental manager to ask a question necessary to complete their work. We are told that such communication can mushroom into prolonged back and forth discussions and questions; but that would only mean that others are uncertain of their own roles and that there exists a broader lack of direction from management at higher levels. In reality this is just a heavy-handed way to restrict the internal channels and free flow of information."

"Great Company to work for! Highly recommended."

"Great place to work, good life-work balance."

"Genentech is a good company but the culture varies widely from department to department. In my experience people in commercial are the happiest while those in research are most unhappy. The work environment depends a lot on the managers and if you have a bad one then nothing can save you. Overall the company culture is still good but slowly deteriorating."

"I have worked for Genentech for over a decade and throughout the years have been very giving. They have taught me corporate culture and I have learned the ins and outs of networking."

"Makes me proud that I worked there."