Alpine Electronics of America Reviews

Pros

People are nice. Immediate manager is wonderful to work for/with. Great health benefits.

Cons

Senior Management need to be more involved with the well being of their employees and their concerns. Some management don't show appreciation of the work/effor their employees put in. Lack of resources result in work overload for one person or doing work that isn't related to job description or interest. Minimal opportunity for growth.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn about the concerns your employees have and address them.

Pros

Company has reputation and cool products.

Cons

Company is moving too slow with technology and market demand. Too much controlled from Japanese headquater.
If you happen to be a hardworking guy, you will be hardworking your whole life while many enjoy easy life and getting the same or better benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Please be fair. My effort to impress being shield somewhere.

Pros

Good products and good culture.

Cons

Will work you to death.

Advice to Senior Management

Ask questions from people in the know before making decisions.

Pros

Very Japanese company. If you are fluent in Japanese, or if you have family in Japan, then this company is great for you. Technically, if you like audio and testing activities in general then this may be the right company for you. If you are good at persevering to convince someone till that person budges, this is the right company for you.

Cons

A lot of energy is spent in beureaucratic overhead work. Company is financially unstable now but perhaps compares well to rest of industry. There is no job security anymore. Cost cutting is going to the extreme and remaining engineers are insecure about their positions and their future.

Advice to Senior Management

Reduce executive pay.

Pros

Work environment is generally friendly. People are easy going. Company is in a nice neighborhood.

Cons

Lack of communication. Underpaid. Information is scattered left and right; no organized central location to find necessary information. No software testing team. Too much time spent bug fixing.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve the flow of information. Need a software testing team. Meet market salaries.

Pros

You can see your work becoming a product. You can also impact customer satisfaction directly or indirectly with your day to day activities and your expertise. Many engineers are honest and committed. The work environment is easy going. The location is great for personal or family life with many places to hang out for fun.

Cons

The cultural divide is enormous and every detail is driven from Japan. Local trends and innovation are suppressed. There are less than 200 people in this location, but everyone does not share a single purpose or vision. Many teams go about their work sometimes with surprising disconnect in perception of state of affairs in the workplace. There is NO strategy to show that Alpine has the technology and market vision to prosper in future. Key decisions are made without the knowledge of the people who should be making them.

Advice to Senior Management

Management itself needs to work as a team. There has to be a certain baseline where political turf battles subside and management shows total unity in purpose and information sharing.

Pros

Good benefits and decent vacation time for new employees.

Cons

You are on probation for six months. This is an extremely long time; they do not tell you this during the interview process. So, watch out.
Management is one sided about most things. Do not rock the boat. It will get you fired.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Alpine Electronics of America has good brand recognition, although mainly among the younger male crowd. The products are known for their high quality.

Cons

The management is run out of Japan and much of top management at the US office are from the Japanese office, making communication challenging as the Japanese office is very "traditional" Japanese and the managers therefore tend to not have the same ideas about work and advancement as an American manager might have.

Advice to Senior Management

Intercultural training.

Pros

Easy work, no much pressure, light workload, flexible work hours, 12 holidays a year, good health insurance, nice people, brand recognition

Cons

Low salary, middle to higher management team are all Japanese, most of them speak poor English

Advice to Senior Management

Stay closer with engineers

Pros

The people are great. That is those that are not in management.

Cons

Old technologies. Japanese style management. Contempt for employees. Management is Cheap.The work was not interesting and the pay was not competitive.

Advice to Senior Management

Treate you employees better and pay them market value or lose them like your lost me.