Garmin reviews

3.7

71% would recommend to a friend

(1,854 total reviews)
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Clifton Pemble

76% approve of CEO

69% positive business outlook

Garmin has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,854 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Garmin employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Dec 12, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great benefits. Pay is okay. People are extremely nice and fun to work with. Most engineers are very bright. Some, not all, of 1st level management, "team leads", are easy to work for. Proud to work in consumer electronics field.

Cons

Upper management once seemed strong and flawless. Now, they have no clue how to fend off competition. No realistic vision for the future. Management problem solving technique is to require more overtime rather than using creative solutions. Mandatory 60 hour work weeks. Canceled holiday weekends. Still think solutions and processes that were successful in the 90's still work today. Middle management are typically yes-men. Consistently make short-sided decisions. Avoid difficult decisions and hope they go away, but rarely do. Unwilling to invest in tools and process. Never willing to pay for on the job education. Some 1st level management promoted too soon in their careers, lacking leadership skills, and left hanging on difficult projects, with little training and support from management.

3.0
Oct 22, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Global name recognition. Benefits are good.

Cons

As a creative employee, I feel Garmin dismisses us as production artists. Most of all, HR and department heads outside of the creative groups have no idea what we do. And this is across the board from Industrial Design to Marketing. The major creative decisions made at Garmin are most often decided by people completely out of touch with creativity and style. I mean these guys (some of them) buy their clothes at Walmart and drive Ford Focuses. How do they qualify in deciding what looks nice? They have Engineering backgrounds and are interested in numbers, not colors. It makes no sense. Shouldn't the creative decisions be made by the Directors of creative departments and their employees? As far as pay scale, Garmin still puts emphasis on engineering rather than creativity. And I know what some starting Engineers get paid out of college. Does $15k seem like a reasonable difference for starting salaries between engineering and creative? Get with the program, Garmin.

3.0
Aug 5, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

young and honest developers and managers. small size and particular friendliness will make it very personal. really good equipment and office location / furniture.

Cons

not enough senior developers. poor horizontal integration within the corporation makes it difficult to get things out the door. poor feedback / review processing. tyrannical rule of one/two devs.

Viewing 1834 - 1836 of 1,854 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,236 Garmin reviews submitted anonymously by Garmin employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Garmin is right for you.