Great company but are the best days behind us? - Anonymous employee Genentech Employee Review

4.0
8 Mar 2011
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great salary and benefits. There is interesting work and opportunities to get to know and understand many aspects of the biotech industry. Sabbaticals and holiday vacation / time off is a great benefit.

Cons

Work activities are narrowly focused. You get a lot of great experience but it is often only within a narrowly defined area. Moving between other groups and organizations is very difficult. That is why many people stay within the same group for years. Senior management is focused on reducing headcount in South San Francisco. This is after they eliminated employees at their Nutley NJ and Palo Alto sites. This company is very much apart of the Roche group in that all the major decisions are made in Basel. I think Genentech's best days are over. Given recent failures, the pressure to reduce expenses will only increase.

Explore other reviews about Genentech

5.0
25 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing people, pay, and benefits. I thought they were joking about the free gym

Cons

I really have no complaints

2.0
19 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The work is meaningful and overall the company vision aligns with my goals

Cons

QA management has become inept. None of the leadership (aside from maybe one or two) truly understand the nuances of our site and jobs. They refuse to pay you more due to "budget" reasons but won't provide much information, they claim to be transparent but will make decisions behind your back and not communicate them, even if they impact you and/or your job. Leadership doesn't listen to feedback and gets defensive if you even try to give any. It honestly has become a game of politics only in QA and that's not really building any real quality culture.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All