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    Pacific Biosciences Reviews

    Updated November 1, 2018
    50 reviews

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    3.4
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Pacific Biosciences Chairman, CEO & President Michael Hunkapiller
    Michael Hunkapiller
    23 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "Definitely the perks of work/life balance" (in 3 reviews)

    • "Generally nice people to work with" (in 3 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Most employees knew this, but upper management apparently saw that as 'backtracking'" (in 3 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "reliability engineer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Reliability Engineer in Menlo Park, CA
      Current Employee - Reliability Engineer in Menlo Park, CA
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Pacific Biosciences full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      great technical management and friendly environment

      Cons

      Slow marketing and sales, great technology, just slow in sales

    2. "Excellent technology"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      Great pay and benefits. No matching 401k

      Cons

      There are any to think of

      3. Join the Pacific Biosciences team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Slow growth"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time

      Pros

      Lots interactions with colleagues across multifunctional departments

      Cons

      Not much growth space for lower level employees

    4. "Nice place to work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Pacific Biosciences full-time

      Pros

      Nice place to work, great peple

      Cons

      a lot of micro-management from upper levels.

      Advice to Management

      listen to your employees more

    5. Helpful (1)

      "Joined for the great company culture"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior Scientist in Menlo Park, CA
      Current Employee - Senior Scientist in Menlo Park, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at Pacific Biosciences full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Great team who works well together
      Flexible manager who lets us direct our own projects

      Cons

      Too much politics in certain departments
      Retention of employees who do not work well with others

      Advice to Management

      Encourage more communication between executive management and employees. They seem out of touch and even uninterested in engaging with non-managerial employees. Base decisions on facts and logic, not the seniority of the person who brings the idea.

    6. "An OK company"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Management in Menlo Park, CA
      Former Employee - Management in Menlo Park, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      Definitely the perks of work/life balance. In my years of experience I never work for a company that are very relax in allowing employees to work less than 8 hours/day. Many employees also work from home. Also they have great products and very smart engineers.

      Cons

      Tough competition in selling their products. Top management is unable to execute revenue goals for many years and have to do raise money for operating expenses which resulted in their $2 stock price.

      Advice to Management

      The company has been in this mode for several years. Top management need to identify and make hard decisions of what work and what doesn’t work as far as business decisions.

    7. "Well wisher of the amazing technology"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at Pacific Biosciences full-time

      Pros

      Task centric work culture. Flexibility in work hours.

      Cons

      Needs more focus. The edge and excitement during the startup phase needs to be rejuvenated.

    8. Helpful (2)

      "Good product, good people, good company - but challenges and changes"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Menlo Park, CA
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Menlo Park, CA
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      - Good product: a state-of-the-art DNA sequencer with innovative technology invented by the founders and tec
      - Good people: smart, capable, helpful, and nice people, with an unhyped culture of contribution, support, and friendliness
      - Good company: excellent purpose; generally well-directed, well-organized, well-managed company

      I worked under two excellent managers at PacBio, definitely among the very best managers I've ever had. I also had excellent support from and interaction with members of my own and other teams.

      Cons

      - Challenges in the market, despite product quality and continuing innovation and technological advancement
      - Changes in organization, management, and staff with loss of valuable contributors and disruption of culture

      Advice to Management

      - Continue to prioritize innovation and technological advancement
      - Take organizational steps to recognize & retain valuable contributors and to support culture

    9. Helpful (1)

      "R&D company with good sequencers but can't operationalize to become profitable."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - IT Professional in Menlo Park, CA
      Former Employee - IT Professional in Menlo Park, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time (More than 3 years)

      Pros

      Nice people
      Provides salad bar
      Technology has great potential, but competition is catching up.
      Promotion is easy, just ask management and they will hire someone under you, no experience or training is required
      Flexible working hour, 4 out of 5 days from home is acceptable.

      Cons

      No 401K match.
      Management clueless, unqualified and waste money on projects without any ROII.
      Lack of Communication/Lack vision.
      Amazingly political for a small company
      No real growth, except to fine tune your political skills.

      Advice to Management

      Have a focus strategy and go after it, communicate down to achieve understanding and alignment.

    10. "Pays pretty well, slow environment."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I worked at Pacific Biosciences full-time

      Pros

      Relatively fun and casual environment. Generally nice people to work with.

      Cons

      Slow environment, needs better organization. Too many telecommuters.