Siemens Medical Reviews in Philadelphia, PA Area

Pros

The family and work balance is appreciated by employees.

Cons

Overkill on processes. Even the process has a process.

Pros

Huge company that can provide a huge diversity of experience. Very complex environment that can bring out the best in people.

Cons

The company promotes top performers (which is great if you are a top performer) but is not much use if you are in the other 95% of the employee population.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on building all employees, not just the top performers. Need to improve communication with meaningful content to all employees and not just the top level.

Pros

I love interacting with our customers and helping them solve their problems. The people are very motivated and creative and the lower levels.

Cons

Upper Management does not provide leadership and direction. This is like a big ship floundering in the ocean. This company makes money in spite of them-self.

Advice to Senior Management

Open up let your people work with you.

Pros

The people are great, hardworking and smart. The products are cool. The cause is noble, improve the delivery and outcomes of healthcare. Lots of opportunities to work in different divisions and expand your resume. Global company with relocation options if interested.

Cons

Big, difficult industry, lots of silos. Demanding jobs...difficult work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to eliminate silos of responsibility

Pros

Benefits were good and compensation was fair. Training opportunities were ample and furthering education was looked upon favorably.

Cons

It definitly felt like you were working for a large company. A good deal of decisions were made by hq which was overseas and not a lot of thought was put into how it would trickle down in the states.

Advice to Senior Management

Spend time in the field to get a sense of how decisions made would affect the sales force.

Pros

Siemens Medical is a good company to work for overall. The company operates in the medical devices and healthcare IT, as such it is interesting work. The company has really good employees working at the company which makes going to work everyday a little easier.

Cons

The work-life balance has been an issue, especially as the organization has gone through restructuring and layoffs over the last year. Siemens compensation seams to be a little bit lower then the market overall - but seams to be competitive. Siemens is a large global organization and therefore there are many stakeholders that require different information. Many times different groups may ask for similar information which can cause some frustration.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management needs to be more decisive and make decisions more quickly. In the current market environment - waiting too long to make decisions is a serious problem

Pros

Great benefits that start on day one: lots of options for medical that are mostly reimbursed. Great 401(k) matching although the vesting period is long (5 years). Most managers support flexible start times and working from home when illness or weather strike. There are a lot of opportunities to learn using technical classes offered on-site or online and managers will help you get into these classes. A lot of employees have been there for 10+ years, so there's a lot of older pre-Siemens experience around. Siemens is involved in the local community so there are plenty of options to give back locally.

Cons

There is way too much management and process at Siemens Medical, which is typical of most large companies. Management tends to get in the way of people doing actual work and instead layer process and procedure on employees instead of trusting their best judgment. People tend to be pigeon-holed into very specific roles and know nothing about what goes on outside of their silo. Management tends to be ADD, focusing on something new frequently at the demise of everything else. Management also tends to not be consistent, you'll get a different story on the same subject from a variety of managers.

Like most larger companies, their performance review process, while fair, constrains those who truly excel and gives pitiful raises while dangling promotions in front of you that are always 'just a year away'.

Advice to Senior Management

Lay off half the managers and trim the dead wood left over from summers layoffs amongst the technical staff. There's way too much bloat and process in the company.

Pros

Siemens is an extremely large organization with an extensive portfolio. Hence if you have an interest in exploring different job opportunities based on region, product or responsibility this is a great place to work. The work culture is very dependent on the business unit but overall it is pretty good. The executive management has been pretty good and there are good leadership and development programs available for career growth and progression.

Cons

The biggest downside to working for Siemens Medical is the pay. It is not very competitive and hence it has to rely on work culture and fostering the Siemens spirit to retain employees. There is a pretty large middle management layer that is very conservative and on the experienced side. This invariably leads to limited opportunities for young professionals and innovation and this leads to frustration and loss of talented employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Work towards establishing a lean management structure. Foster growth and innovation by providing more opportunities to youth and focusing more on diversity. Pay more attention to accountability and results achieved as opposed to perception.

Pros

High potential for movements horizontally. I joined Siemens primarily to be able to get experience across other industries. Although after 4 yrs it has not happened, I have seen many others and I feel the right time will come. Given its continuing success, I'm also quite proud to be part of the organisation.

Cons

Get lost in the noise. It is such a large organisation, it is easy to feel lost now and then. That is to say, you feel like your impact on the organisation is so small.

Advice to Senior Management

Too many cooks in the kitchen. Decision at BU level needs to trump.

Pros

Large corporation with significant room to grow. Diverse product offerings allow for hedging against market fluctuations. Heavy process discipline can be positive for someone who likes structure. Career opportunities are excellent, if you're willing to relocate.

Cons

Focus is on audits and reporting, rather than driving change and results, which tends to inhibit entrepreneurial ideas and risk taking. Signifcant investments in new products not yielding high ROI, placing pressure on cost reductions.

Advice to Senior Management

Push down decision making to lower levels and focus on results, rather than budgets or process. Who audits all of the auditors? :-)