Boston Scientific Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Encouraged and supported independent work and was not micromanaged

Cons

Promotions, raises and bonus not dispensed equally -- seemed to be given to management favorites -- did not give all employees opportunity to shine to assist in moving up in company.

Advice to Senior Management

All employees should be given opportunity to grow and be promoted within company.

Pros

An interesting industry, very competitive pay and great people make this an enjoyable place to work. With sites in both east and west metro there is more room for advancement.

Cons

Continually changing priorites coming from HQ made it very difficult to stay energized. We would not be done implementing one major iniative when it would be scrapped and replaced with something else. The revolving door for CEO's doesn't help.

Advice to Senior Management

Make thoughtful, INFORMED desicions. Get enought subject matter experts involved to truly understand the issues and then stick with your initiatives.

Pros

Benefits package, Compensation, willingness to invest in new technologies.

Cons

Need better unity between different locations.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow for more granular level advancement.

Pros

I am a contractor at Boston Scientific and they treat their employees with respect and have good benefits. The breaks are good and the cafeteria is nice. Management is respectful to production people. A very clean place to work.

Cons

I only get 6 days of vacation for the entire year, some mandatory overtime during summer and Christmas time.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire good contractors, keep a third shift for production

Pros

Market leading products in pipeline. Good team-work.

Cons

Present management focus is to save money by shortenning project completion time, instead focusing the quality or employee retention.

Advice to Senior Management

More attention is required for product quality and employee retention.

Pros

People are very friendly
There are a lot of opportunities to try new positions and advance if you look for them
Great place to feel like you are making a difference in people's lives

Cons

Typical Corporate Position with lots of Corporate Politics
Very Management heavy compared to other companies
Projects often don't complete on time or within budget
Frequent Layoffs and budget issues
Lots of re-orgs of departments and teams

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more with Employees on Management decisions and ideas
Better communication needed from upper level Management
Stop reorganizing departments so frequently

Pros

Flexible work schedule. This has helped me on a number of occasions when I needed to deal with family issues.

Lots of great exposure to new technology.

Cons

Boston Scientific strives to be an average company. There seems to be an strong desire to do what the market is doing and to not stray far from that. In the long run, I think that hurts our ability to bring great things to the market. I suppose that's simply the way big business runs. Having worked for smaller companies that were more employee centric, this seems to be a bad route to take.

Training was almost non-existent for many years due to the fact that we were not allowed to travel.

Advice to Senior Management

The stock price really tells the story. Clearly what has been done hasn't been working. Time to get creative people. If you plan to give stock options as incentives, it's time to make them worth something.

Pros

Benefit, overtime, and tuition compensation.

Cons

Negative work environment, less time to attend to social life

Advice to Senior Management

Terminate mandatory overtime.

Pros

The life saving devices that the company makes for it's patients
Friendly people
Talented people
Good benefits

Cons

Leadership does not stick with a strategy and does not get employees involved soon enough to feel a part of it.
Continually changing things and then changing them back -- What's the flavor of the day decision making
Continual lay-offs
Does the right and left know what they are doing?

Advice to Senior Management

Work together and demonstrate your leadership.
Be transparent and improve communication.
Commit to improving the morale and current culture.
Quickly hire a new CEO before more great people jump ship.
Do one big RIF and be done! Make it count instead of continual ones that don't get you to plan!

Pros

Generally good culture, rewarding products that make a real difference in people's lives, compensation is decent, work/life balance is very good

Cons

Could make more money going to MDT or STJ (well-known fact), middle management isn't always great at letting lower levels do their jobs, definitely run by "cliques"

Advice to Senior Management

Make it more about being a meritocracy than it currently is. Stock options are nice, but when is the stock going to go up?