Bose Reviews

Pros

Clean showrooms, Fun environment when with non management coworkers

Cons

Middle Managers have no clue what they are doing. Pay is horrible considering what they have you sell and the profit margins involved. Very vindictive managers... fall in line with the Bose process or they will fabricate reasons to fire you.
The bonus system is ugly and they make sure to keep the good months out of reach.
IMHO the products are a total sham but you wouldnt know that if you went into a store and had a brainwashed employee feed you the SCRIPTED sales lines.
Pay raises were non-existent and if you raised any concerns you were immediately targeted by management for termination. Youd think this company would take a long look at the failures and disaproval ratings of its GM's and DM's and do something about it.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to get rid of your DM's. You also need to get rid of most of your GM's. You put these GM's on a system where they have incentives to lie about their numbers to meet goals. Do the DM's care? No, they dont because they are on the same system...... Do the RM's care? No, because even they are on the same system. You dont get progress in a company where every employee from the bottom to the top is too afraid to disagree with their manager. Instead they lie and say that everything is alright.... and that process continues all the way to the top.

Pros

Dr. Bose is a visionary in building brand based on great products. Great product that makes me proud when people mentioning Bose, wow...Another part of vision of Dr. Bose was that hiring talented people, make working environment more friendly to new ideas and risk taking for excellence, but all that are changing...

Cons

The culture has changed, some for better, some for worse. It is more processed focused, only that the balance of creativity and process seems not there yet, no risk taking for excellence anymore; Product offerings are narrowly focused, thus not many growth opportunities; career advancement is really in question, depends on who you are connected for the most part, seems believe that external is better than internal talents; politics are big, playing accounting tricks in some areas ; very poor human skills of some lower and middle managers, mostly hired recent 3-5 years, kissed up and kicked down, lowered moral...

Advice to Senior Management

really need to work on lower and middle managers' management skill, probably also on improving senior managers' leadership capability.

Pros

They really take their core principles - Excellence, Passion, Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus, Innovation - seriously and try to incorporate them into everything they do. A culture that tries as best as it can to ensure each individual is able to reach their fullest potential.

Cons

It can takes a long time to make decisions and get things started. Culture of collaboration and consensus can lead to inactivity and long delays.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doing what your doing. Though not without its flaws you've created an environment that is truly distinct and very supportive.

Pros

Excellent opportunities for training, professional development and expanding your knowledge in chosen field.

Cons

Part of layoff due to economy.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue the excellent job of developing employees and making high quality products.

Pros

Not the typical "stuffy" corporate atmosphere
Friendly, welcoming employees
In house hiring/friend/family referrals
AWESOME company discounts-up to 50% on some items
Above average salary
Excellent work-family balance
Fun, relaxed atmosphere (except at the Corporate Building)

Cons

Bose is an awesome place to work--and they know it. For anything other than an engineering position, they probably wont hire you unless theyve had a chance to "try you out--" prepare to be a contractor for a long time. Even then there are no guarantees youll get hired.

I was a contractor filling in for a woman that had left the company abruptly. They kept me in her position for a year, then the company finally posted the position for official hire for a permanent person. Even though I was told I was doing a great job, they told me I'd actually have to interview for it (yes, for the job that I had been doing for a YEAR--already knew the job, everyone in my dept and had a great relationship w/ management and staff) Even though all my colleagues wrote glowing letters of recommendation AND made phone calls on my behalf, they STILL gave the job to someone else-an outsider at that! When I asked the hiring manager why??? she told me she felt the person she hired would stay longer in the position in the long run because this was more in line with her "career path." Turns out that girl left after a year. Unbelievable. All that work for nothing.

Advice to Senior Management

Maximum 6 months waiting period (with good performance) for contractors before getting hired. Some people I know had been contracting for 4+ years! Seal the deal already Bose, dont take advantage of people. Unacceptable.

Pros

Good place for non-achievers, Flexibility in work hours

Cons

Don't expect career advancement. Promotions are based on who you know. Not a place for non-whites. Slow pace. Takes a very very long time for the management to make any decisions. No growth prospect for the company;

Advice to Senior Management

Change lot of senior managment people who brown noses. Change the culture and try to attract talented people if you want Bose Corporation to grow.

Pros

Work and life balance
Flexible workplace
Ability to learn about other areas

Cons

Stagnant company culture. Apparently, Engineering is not like that but I felt my department was very stagnant
Management can sometimes be undermining
Career development depends on your manager. They do not consult with you on your preferences
Lack of employee development and training

Advice to Senior Management

Do not try to accomplish so many big things at once

Pros

gain technical skills and knowledge

Cons

Often times projects move too slow.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to move faster to be more competitive.

Pros

The atmostphere at Bose is fantastic. Everybody is happy to be there and proud of the products that they are selling. They have a true "open-door" policy that makes it every easy to communicate with management.

Cons

Being a reasonably large corporation, Bose does struggle with the limitations of some larger companies. There is a lot of red tape to get through for significant changes to occur. Their approach to creating audio products is not to be a lead innovator, but rather to see how the market responds to new technology, and then to refine that technology and incorporate it after it has been successful for awhile.

Advice to Senior Management

I truly enjoyed my tenure at Bose and would love to work there again at any point in the future. I have highly recommended Bose to everyone that ha asked.

Pros

- Great work life balance
- Laid back corporate culture
-Strong brand recognition
-Great quality products
- Overall solid company

Cons

- Best to go in during tail end of career
- Hard to go in at a more junior level and work way up

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, Bose is a great place to work with a great culture and great product. Might be a good idea to having a more structured plan as to how younger aggressive employees can grow within the company.