Solar Turbines Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Solar Turbines

Pros – Benefits package is great. Good promotion of work life balance.

Cons – Standard organizational sturcture and associated office political issues.

Advice to Senior Management – Make the company's strategy for future growth and sustainability more visible to individual contributors.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Solar Turbines

Pros – Rotational programs allow for experience in many areas over the course of your career. Employees are responsible for certain aspects of each project and with with others in the department to share findings and budgets in order to ensure that projects are profitable and other strategic discussions. Annual conferences are held to that include employees from international offices, great way to learn about e successes and failures other companies face.

Cons – Althought there is a rotational program, each rotation does not necessarily result in promotion. Each employee is promoted about once every 1.5 - 3 years.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Solar Turbines

Pros – good place over all. Minmal technical challanges. Good work/life balance and opportunities to take classes for which CAT will pay.

Cons – Has a good ol' boy culture where promotions are given based on how long a person has been there, regardless of competency

Advice to Senior Management – Minmal technical challanges. Has a good ol' boy culture where promotions are given based on how long a person has been there, regardless of competency. A review of junior employees career plans would help

Current Employee – been working at Solar Turbines

Pros – Decent pay. Low turnover, good benefits, stable company.

Cons – Not very dynamic, software is outdated

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Solar Turbines

Pros – Small enough organization, enough ability to move around, good progression for select undergrads, great location and work life balance, friendly managers

Cons – average compensation, talent management system yet to become mature, may get locked in a role unless top management spots you early enough

Advice to Senior Management – Improve on diversity for higher management roles, else will start loosing talent. Give more empowerment to employees, and improve cross training

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Solar Turbines

Pros – Great compensation and benefits.
Great emphasis on safety.
Continual effort to improve processes and document for future reference.
Minorities seem to be well represented.
Goes above and beyond for employees affected by disaster.
Great on-going opportunities for training.

Cons – Lack of timely communication sometimes.
Negative chatter from old-timers who don't like change. They are sometimes right though, so one should shut up, listen and come to your own conclusions.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep emphasis on safety and continued training.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Solar Turbines

Pros – 1) Location is Great.. (Its San Diego)
2) Starting salary for new hire from school is $65,000 with $10,000 sign up bonus for HB facility and $65,000 flat for KM facility which is $5000 more than other companies in San Diego.

Cons – 1)You have to have a family member in Upper management in order to move up the ladder otherwise you will be spinning your wheels and wasting your time.

2) 90% Managers are not qualified for their positions. (They either dont have higher degrees or their degrees are from online universities)

3) They need to hire better HR reps. The director of HR and all her assistance are not qualified for their positions. They need to be sent to school to take more HR related courses.

4) There is no training and lots of tribal knowledge.

5) Poor Management

Advice to Senior Management – To learn more about leadership and the ones that dont have degrees go back to school and get a degree from an established school not online schools

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Solar Turbines

Pros – Solar Turbines offers a challenging, but fun work environment. The different departments are easily accessible across the organization in order to effectively complete projects.

Cons – Some of the computer software and telephone systems are a bit behind the times. Additionally, the general mentality of the company is to maintain the products and designs of the past, rather than moving forward with new or different ideas.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Solar Turbines

Pros – Comparitively stable company and subsidiary of a Fortune 50 company. Decent benefits but not that great for a Fortune 50 company. Good work environment for engineering and blue collar manufacturing positions. Good training and educational programs. Understand the politics, keep a low profile and you will do fine.

Cons – Not a dynamic work environment. The company culture feels stale and stagnant for the most part. Buildings at the coporate headquarters (Harbor Drive) may be historic but makes for poor working conditions for non-production line employees and may pose health hazards. Managers for the most part are very cautious and maintain a low profile. Most of them have little personality - bland clones easily replaced by upper management so they don't dare rock the boat or be innovative. Difficulty in career advancement due to senior management holding on positions for long periods of time.

Advice to Senior Management – Succession planning should be a priority for the company. Most of current upper management will be retiring soon and the next wave of upper management needs to be innovative and in tune with the times. The company has lost several talented employees who have gone on to be directors and managers at other Fortune 100 companies because it takes a lifetime to get ahead.

Current Employee – been working at Solar Turbines

Pros – I have not seen anything nice about this company. Most people who work for SolarTurbines have their family member work there as well and they usually offer the best jobs to their family members.

SolarTurbines does not care about education and most people and unfortunately Engineers who work for their Kearney Mesa facility do not have degrees or their degrees are from Online Universities such as University of Phoenix ...

If you are looking for a career opportunity and growth SolarTurbines wont be a place for you. If you just need an experience and dont have enough experience it might be a good place for 2 years just to have an experience ...

Cons – 1) SolarTurbines employees are mostly families and most management have their family members working for SolarTurbines as well and they only offer the good paying jobs to their family members.
2) SolarTurbines managers and Engineers mostly dont have degrees and they are mostly been with the company for 20 years and worked their way up. The managers that have degrees have their degrees either from Online Universities or not ranked universities such as SDSU or UCSD

3) If you are smart and graduated from good universities I would suggests to stay away from this company

Advice to Senior Management – Horrible management. Most management ither have their degrees from Online Universities ior None prestigious universities such as SDSU or UCSD

Most managers have their family members working for SolarTurbines and all good positions are only offered to their family members

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend