Pros
Phenomenex has over 500 employees worldwide. 300 of the employees are based in Torrance, CA. The people who work at the company are great. There is a lot of energy and the morale and atmosphere make it a nice place to work. The work environment is also very nice. The office spaces are spacious, bright, and well designed. The labs are beautiful and well equipped. The company believes strongly in promoting from within and they reward good efforts over longevity. The managers of almost all of the departments started as entry-level employees at one point. Since they have done the jobs of the people in their groups, there is a lot of respect and generally good working relationships. The knowledge of the scientists within the company is top-notch and the company has had 28 years of solid growth. I have worked in the technical sales group and got transferred to the marketing group. The expectations are very high and it is a pretty fast paced environment but if you like that, you can do very well within these departments. The company constantly has fun activities and they are very dedicated to philanthropy. I have participated in many company sponsored events to help others in need. I think this is the coolest thing about the company next to the people. I've worked for two other companies in this industry in a sales role and compared to those companies, Phenomenex is a dream. Essentially no red- tape, no long reports, if you have a good idea you basically have an automatic green light, and if you do your job well, you can basically manage yourself as long as you keep your group updated. This company also actually cares about tier customers and there are very strong customer relationships. Other companies can tend to view the customer simply as positive or negative revenue potential and something to be "managed."
Cons
In most departments the expectations are very high and the pace is very fast. It is kind of a "work hard/play hard" mentality. Since everyone is pushing to do more, faster, it can get hectic at times and there can be some pretty good debates between groups and tempers can flare a bit.. Generally, the spirit is either to help the company grow or ensure good service to the customer, so even though it can get crazy, in the end everyone is on the same team and the hard work is recognized most of the time. In most departments, if you want "no-hassle" job, you probably wouldn't last long. If you work well in a fast paced environment and you don't mind juggling a lot of tasks, then it;s a great place.