If job satisfaction or agency over your career path are important to you, look elsewhere - "Distribution Generalist" McMaster-Carr Employee Review

2.0
May 24, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

• Free tuition reimbursement (100% tuition+textbooks reimbursement in any subject from an accredited program as long as you get at least a D and no requirement to stay with the company) • You will never have work to do outside of work hours. • The medical and dental plans are amazing and you don't have to pay any premiums. • There is a cash bonus every year for anyone still employed on December 1st (last year each employee got a bonus of 480% of their monthly salary). • If you work in the warehouse: the people are great.

Cons

• Your job will probably be extremely boring, repetitive, and automated out of existence within 10 years. • If you work in the office: you don't really get opportunities to get to know anyone in the cubicles around you (if you're an introvert, this may be a Pro). • Career advancement decisions are made far removed from your own management team, and you don't really have any input. You may be spontaneously moved (horizontal "promotion") to a different department with 2 days notice. • You may have skills that the company needs, but they'd rather promote one of their management trainees (1st class McM citizens) into the role, rather than waste a good job on an office drone (2nd class McM citizens), or a warehouse worker (3rd class McM citizens). • The class structure mentioned in the above bulletpoint exists.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

4.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Pay/benefits are incredibly generous - People are generally easy/nice to work with - Note that the Systems department seems to be fairly isolated from the negative issues discussed in other reviews (e.g. tension between warehouse workers and management) - I haven't experienced any of those issues within the systems department. In my opinion, Systems is a great place to work and develop as an engineer. - Hybrid work style (3 days in office). Personally, I like hybrid more than both fully in-office and fully remote styles. - Great cafeteria with good food and cheap prices. - Good work/life balance (outside of being on call, I can leave work at work).

Cons

- Work is not super interesting to me. I come from a highly technical, but very different (not ecommerce/industrial supplies), background where I was doing work I was much more interested in. No doubt there are folks in Systems who love the domain though. - While I'm not on call a ton (1-2 weeks every few months), I really hate being on call. I like to leave work at work. Note that joining at least one reliability team is expected within your first year or so.

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