Gilead Sciences reviews

3.5

61% would recommend to a friend

(2,014 total reviews)
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Daniel O’Day

68% approve of CEO

55% positive business outlook

Gilead Sciences has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 2,014 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Gilead Sciences employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Feb 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Being surrounded by brilliant people and getting to work on cutting edge science. The work can be very exciting and the energy in the company can be infectious at first.

Cons

They will expect you to work 6-7 days a week from 6am-8 or 9pm in order to get all of your work done. The legal group needs to triple in size in order to be able to handle the workload that they have. The company operates in a "Lean and Mean" mentality, which means that for every one attorney, there should be 3 attorneys doing the job. The average person stays at the company for 1- 1.5 years and then leaves for other pursuits. The company pays decently and expects their lower salaries to be supplemented by large stock offerings but the stock has leveled off and the benefits are not nearly as worthwhile. Managers do not have the time necessary to truly guide new employees and that leaves new employees to fend for themselves in a very cut throat sink or swim environment.

1.0
Apr 21, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Gilead specializes in viral diseases, but already lost ground in HCV and COVID-19 therapies, while the last straw is HIV, but it's losing its foothold to ViiV healthcare, which launched the long-acting HIV medicine. The benefits package is okay, but considering the company is located in Silicon Valley, it's minimal compared to other biopharma here such as Genentech, Illumina, JnJ.

Cons

The RnD has chemistry, biomarker, biology, etc., I have to give the credit to chemistry, which is still the best in RnD, but it's losing talents due to the toxic culture. Biomarker is functioning as clinical PD, it's mediocre compared to Genentech and other pharma in Bay Area. Biology is the worst, please please STAY AWAY from that department. There's no clear direction of this whole RnD department, the leadership has no idea about what they are doing, scientists are supposed to do research there, but this department is more functioning as the company's BD branch, with no productivity, no achievement, didn't add anything valuable to company's portfolio. Whole viral cure pipelines were bought from research institutes, most of them are not working, but the RnD management insists to develop useless garbage given the money they've spent on licensing them in. The environment of biology RnD is profoundly toxic, the managers fight for projects from the upper-level management, and they sabotage and undermine each other all the time. The employee under them don't talk to each other, but always report other to managers. No collaboration within the department, people see each other as snitches. No matter how politically correct it advocates here, the people who got promoted are all white males who discriminate against people of color, especially look down upon scientists who are immigrants from foreign countries where English is not the prime language. A lot of them have no credentials, no experience only got promoted due to knowing how to play politics there. The base pay is terrible in Bay Area, worse than most of the biotech startups. People are very unhappy here, nobody smiles, and my coworkers who stay here longer than 3 years only stay here for the underpaid salary. The department discourages employees' passion, creativity, and scientific curiosity, the only people who can thrive are people who are calculated, sophisticated sometimes vicious. STAY AWAY STAY AWAY STAY AWAY

1.0
Nov 17, 2019

Avoid this place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It used to be pay but with the crashing stock price it is less so with each day . They are increasing the 401k contribution but that is a pro only if you are close to retirement , who knows how things will shape up if you are 20-30 yrs from retirement.

Cons

Where to begin: 1. Way too many roadblocks to get things done , very frustrating if you are young and want to prove yourself. Also very few promotions based on merit , do not expect career growth in this company. 2. Do not join if you are planning to join IT as an employee or contractor , morale is low and there is not much help from senior management. 3. Weak pipeline and the next 5yrs look bleak 4. Burnout in most departments, avoid this place if you want less stress and more happiness

Viewing 34 - 36 of 2,014 Reviews

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