They pay smart people a lot of money to do menial work. Get in, get your benefits, and get out - Business Operations Specialist McMaster-Carr Employee Review

3.0
Jul 14, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a highly overpaid customer service job. The pay is incredible for how easy the work is, tuition reimbursement, top notch insurance, clean and pretty campus. Once I got management to like me, the job got a lot less stressful and a tiny bit more interesting. They'll put you on "special projects" once they trust you, which are still quite mind-numbing, but at least break up the day, and require a smidgen of critical thinking. Also I loved my coworkers. Management is *very* hit or miss, but I liked everyone on the specialist level. They were kind, fun, and supportive.

Cons

The culture is fear-based and at times demoralizing, though that's not immediately evident (at least it wasn't to me). Upper-level management is able to establish this in a pleasant-ish, passive aggressive way. Every move you make is micromanaged. For many months I was constantly afraid of getting fired. The work is highly repetitive and mechanized but still stressful because you're expected to have close to 100% accuracy (that's not an exaggeration). The management team is mostly made up of recent ivy-league spawns. Most were perfectly nice, many were arrogant and difficult to be around. Because they're so young and the "workhorses" are closer to middle age, it made for a really bizarre and at times hostile social dynamic. I worked there for fewer than two years in my mid-twenties, so I was never on the receiving end of the toxic ageism, but it was too palpable not to notice. All that said, I *would* still recommend this to anyone who is looking for a year or two to save some money, further their education, add to their retirement pot, maybe prepare for graduate school. That's what I did and it set me up really nicely. I got out of credit card debt, I had my nice apartment on the beach, I took some classes at UCLA and got ready for graduate school. Perfect for transition. That being said, I would be deeply depressed if it were my full-time career. I felt like I was losing brain cells and replacing them with completely useless skills.

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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