Pros
The salary is fairly competitive and the benefits are good. If you’re from the industries that Zebra caters to (eg, warehouses, supply chain, manufacturing, t&l, retail), Zebra is one of the top solution sellers and is well-known. If your not, you might struggle to learn because nobody ever explains what all the acronyms mean. The learning curve is steep. If you’re from one of those industries and you enjoy them, I’m sure Zebra will provide you with work and opportunities that you will enjoy. Zebra is a global company and has a lot of globally remote employees around the world. If you work in a location with a big office (Lincolnshire HQ or Holtsville, NY), you will have your traditional cafeteria and gym as perks.
Cons
Zebra boasts its employee retention, but that just means you’ll have a lot of lifers, who are people who have been with the company basically their whole careers. Zebra has acquired several companies in their 50 years, thus leading to this phenomena. There is little growth path for your career, but if you are ok with doing the job you have with occasional title bumps, then this can be the place for you. There is a lot of senior leadership due to this fact, and literally everyone wants to have their say in product direction. This bloat makes decisions take forever, we have a ton of ineffective remote meetings with 10+ people, and it takes awhile for anything to really actually get done. Par for the course for B2B, though. Lastly, if you’re a woman, depending on the field you’re in, you should be warned. Zebra is a company with few women, many of them in HR, Legal, or Marketing. Other departments, especially engineering, are heavily male and it shows. It’s a giant boys’ club and some inappropriate comments have been made about women on several occasions. It doesn’t help that the Lincolnshire and Holtsville offices aren’t basically in the middle of nowhere suburbs of Chicago and Long Island really attracting a lot of older Gen X or Boomers over younger talent. Feeds into the boys’ club culture. If you’re a woman in a technical role considering a position at Zebra, be warned. Many men will not take a thing you say into consideration even if it is warranted and backed by data simply because you are a woman. I’m sure the culture will change, but it’s going to take those lifers to retire to have that culture change.
