Canon USA Reviews

Pros

Great benefits and friendly work environment

Cons

low salary, no room for growth

Advice to Senior Management

need to use the resources from with in, more promotion and job growth from employees you already have on staff.

Pros

- Nice people with decent brand recognition.
- Good cafeteria with Japanese food and sushi bar.
- Middle managers try hard to change traditional thinking.

Cons

The technology is falling behind with commodity technologies such as printers and cameras. The Medical division is barely breathing. They have zero interest in innovation and leap frog technology development. HR is a joke and I feel like we are stuck in the 50's with our "old school" thinking. We don't know how to spell "recruiting" since HR doesn't comprehend the difference between hiring and recruiting. Low, low, low glass ceiling for non-Japanese. Low pay and no career path.

Advice to Senior Management

Paradigm shift in HR is required. Tons of opportunities for improvement.

Pros

The company is solid and people are impressed when they see Canon USA on your resume. New building looks like it will be nice. Benefits are decent.

Cons

Little room for advancement, poor management, very low pay scale, Japanese control everything and enjoy much higher pay, bad corporate culture. This is just a bad place to work if you are motivated. You are expected to be happy where you are and happy with your low salary. If you say anything you are told to look for a job in the city and that the salaries are on par for Long Island (which they are not!) They scare everyone into being fearful of losing their jobs by laying off groups of people due to "restructuring" (some 20+ year veterans) whenever they feel like it. If you're in the market for a new job keep searching for a better company!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop holding your employees back because you are afraid of losing your own jobs.

Pros

It feels good to work at a well-known company. Canon is a very popular brand and people automatically assume you're in pretty good position if you tell them you work at Canon.

Most of the senior managers are pretty competent and easy-going. My senior manager was very good. She was a good listener and very open to the ideas of her employees.

Cons

I had a poor middle manager. That was the main reason for my leaving the company. My middle manager was very inconsistent and seemed to worry most about her own job appraisal more than anything else.

A lot of the people there also did not know anything about cameras or photography, which was kind of surprising. I guess that doesn't matter if they are good at their job.

The senior management is also comprised of 99% Japanese or Caucasian males, meaning the corporate culture is kind of stuck in the 1950s.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let people who can't manage become managers. Don't be so conservative or you will eventually fall behind. Most of all, don't dismiss the ideas of your employees just because you have more experience or authority.

Pros

- Access to learning opportunities through online corporate academy
- Good place for the detail-oriented individual or marketer just starting out
- Easily recognizable brand
- Lower-than-industry salary compensated by higher-than-industry paid time off (it just doesn't roll over)
- New facilities coming in 2013 promise good things

Cons

- Low salary and ceiling for advancement
- Required non-compete contract prohibits you from working in the US for 1 year for a competitor following termination or dismissal
- Inefficient and inflexible corporate structure
- Rotational benefit for Japanese expats not extended to non-Japanese; something that could breathe some innovation into the entire organization at every level and functional area.
- New facilities will be too far away from NYC to attract and retain talent

Advice to Senior Management

Please don't accept the status quo if you see that it is no longer relevant or working for your products or target market. Employees and leadership should be allowed to manage upward as well as they manage downward.

Pros

Starting at 13.50 per hour with experience In CA
1 hour lunch
Temporary Employees
Good co-workers
Clean work place

Cons

Carrying heavy packages to classrooms
Ink cartridges need replacing often
Holiday's are minimal
Not enough work space to make copies in

Advice to Senior Management

The management is great so far and my boss treats me fairly. I don't have any major complaints except for if you're old you probably shouldn't work there.

Pros

Great technology, great products and customer support is second to none.

Cons

If accepting the "we always did it that way" culture is your forte, than apply, as unfortunately innovation and change is very hard to accomplish.

Pros

easy going work environment, management is great and friendly

Cons

unable to move forward, very hard to climb up the ladder as canon is a very conservative company

Advice to Senior Management

please give more opportunities for growth

Pros

The organizational culture is great

Cons

The companys compensation lags the market. Extremely cheap in terms of salary and no clear career progression.

Advice to Senior Management

THe company needs to Give career paths to employees in terms of advancement and stop being so cheap in terms of compensation. Human Resources needs to make a retention strategy and senior management needs to be transparent.

Pros

Relatively steady 9-5 environment - the place is a ghost town after 5:30pm aside from management transfers from Canon Inc.
Canon takes true pride in its products and one can learn a lot about that pride in a short time.
Job stability - Canon does not like to lay off anyone though they will not hesitate to fire those low-level under-performers.

Cons

I was promoted twice, right on schedule, but I would still say that promotion opportunities are few and far between. Senior management consists of those that have been there for 20+ years, regardless of ability or competence.
Middle management has a few bright spots, but is heavily burdened with 5-10 year folks who have figured out how to game the system, doing as little as possible and waiting for their checks every two weeks.
Training and leadership development offered is mediocre at best.
Pay is lower than industry average and this is widely known throughout the company, so morale suffers.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your resources that show potential rather than hinder them for self-preservational purposes. Product quality and leadership can only carry the company so far. At some point, you will need to start developing people to advance against competition