Pretty Good - Bioinformatics Software Engineer III Genentech Employee Review

4.0
Jun 3, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

"The Mission" to create drugs that are helping society and keeping people alive is amazing to be a contributor on. It is nice to work with and learn about interesting things that the scientists are working on. Compensation and bonuses are great. Genenbus system makes it easy to get to work from anywhere in the area when COVID is over. Lots of opportunity to move laterally to join different teams and work on novel things, so boredom is rarely an issue.

Cons

Large amount of bureaucracy throughout the organization causes decisions that should take hours to take weeks or months. Most of the actual software engineering and development work is outsourced to contractors in countries around the world where labor is cheaper so if you want to actually write and develop software, this may not be the place for you. Internal politics and lack of communication between groups within the research organization are not great. The scientists and researchers that you collaborating with can be very headstrong and diva-like.

Explore other reviews about Genentech

5.0
Jul 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Genentech does very impactful work and the collaboration amongst different teams is strong.

Cons

I can't think of any cons.

5.0
Jul 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Loved working with my team. Super collaborative and exciting science. Great benefits and work life balance. Love the balance between pipeline and publication.

Cons

Super slow promotion rates that are more dependent on tenure, rather than contribution. We've also had yearly rounds of layoffs for the past four years. It is truly difficult to maintain any level of trust with upper management. However, layoff benefits at Genentech seem to be generous.

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