Pros
Great place to work if you love being active. 401k contributions are in line with the best I’ve seen anywhere — super generous. Great employee stock purchase program as well. Garmin has many different product segments, and you learn a lot very quickly by getting to be involved in all the different segment’s design reviews — keeps it fresh. Coworkers are all super friendly, and managers are great. Garmin puts all new managers through trainings on how to effectively manage and it shows. Just because you were a great engineer doesn’t mean managing will come naturally. Garmin understands this, and invests the time in developing managers which then trickles down to benefits for their direct reports.
Cons
Product deadlines can often be pretty tight. Sometimes you’re locked into delivering by a deadline that marketing promised a vendor. That’s more of a general comment on being in the consumer electronics industry. Best advice is to state any concerns you have with timelines as soon as possible with valid reasons. HQ in KS is tough if you’re into the outdoors. A lot of employees are from KS, and that’s because those that aren’t don’t seem to stick around more than 2-3 years. Base salary didn’t compete as well with other big tech names, but this can somewhat be attributed to being in KS.