Illumina Reviews

Pros

Great colleagues and managers Positive and supportive work culture Interesting and varied work Amazing technology Good benefits

Cons

Very rapid pace of change, sometimes with no notice Large inequalities between sales and other parts of the organisation

Pros

The culture is super friendly and open. The creativity and dedication to developing quality products is widespread across the company. The company's mission to achieve better healthcare outcomes and operate sustainably is present in the design of every one of our experiments, which makes me proud to work here.

Cons

It can be challenging at times to plan out your schedule for the upcoming work week as many things can happen that necessitate changing course to tackle new priorities, which can be occasionally be stressful if you need to leave for the day by a certain time. However, moving fast and embracing change is one of Illumina's values and helps to advance the company's mission overall. Needing to change plans with little notice serves as excellent practice in developing experimental plans and managing your time properly.

Pros

Great technical co workers and ability to relax with excellent work life balance if you have a manager with no real responsibilities. And Illumina has many such managers so you have a good probability of having a relaxed lifestyle. Good campus and the impactful product.

Cons

Poor compensation..that is behind. other tier2 companies like ASML Dexcom or Qualcomm by 20 to 30 percent. Below market raise....a average stock grant...it pays 60k at Sr Staff level...bonus is only 10 percent at staff level and it is not paid every year but included as profit in financial quarterly meetings. San Diego real estate has doubled in last three years and as a senior engineer..I cannot afford housing in this market. That itself should be obvious to HR if they were not busy paying themselves 14 million dollars. There is no performance culture at Illumina. Everyone gets same raise irrespective of performance and same stock grant. Bonus is based on company performance where finance makes a number up and we have to target that imaginary number with no direct correlation to actual profit. The Grail fiasco has decimated our stock and we have essentially made no financial gain in last few years. Just stay away if you care about finances. And leave while you can. Turnover is extremely high.

Pros

Very talented engineers and junior management. There us a lot to learn from you colleagues

Cons

Unfortunately middle and top management up to and especially including CEO are outsiders and have very little knowledge about the industry. The very first thing that struck me after joining the company was that there was nobody in the top tier management with biotech or medical science background. You cannot just take someone with great experience in network devices or printers put them in charge of the whole R&D team and expect any breakthrough in the field Illumina is in. The result showed up soon. After the previous CEO Jay Flatley retied, the company rolled on on the momentum but soon ran out of juice, not without help of the disastrous decisions by the leadership team. It is not easy to run into the ground a well established company that enjoys monopoly on the world market but the current management managed to do exactly that. The middle rank management was reshuffled quite often but every time it was the same story nobody who would be able to direct the company efforts to establish itself as a leader in biotech and medical field. Unlike the medium tier the top management would cling to their positions and not let anyone in. The disastrous example with cancer research efforts is one of the example how inept the current management is.

Pros

All things conidered, compensation is still decent.

Cons

- Lack of transparency in decision made by senior leadership. - Reactionary approach to any setback, the company no longer seems to have a long term plan and is at the mercy of investors. - A series of bad decisions by senior management have brought the company to its knees financially (e.g the decision to sue the European Commision ove the Grail aquisition) - The service organisation has faced significant personnel cuts, resulting in the customer base - justifiably - losing trust in the company, as the dwindling service tems can not support the increasing workload. - A multitude of benefits for employees have been cut, while senior management enjoy their bonuses and significant pay increases.

Pros

1.Attractive benefits and salary package. 2. Many food vending machines in pantries which provides alternative food options on lazy days.

Cons

Limited career opportunities for technicians to grow. Too fast paced with unstable systems in place. Middle and First line management is not competent: 1. Unable to communicate changes and give clear directions as most are clueless of the existing system and how a particular change impacts the ground. 3. Able to compile feedbacks but not working on it. 4. Highly dependent on technicians to: Run the show. Patch loopholes. Adapt to ugly consequences which is the result of their incompetency.

Pros

Excellent medical benefits, good salary, reasonable stock options. I was well taken care of from a financial perspective.

Cons

This was my first job after finishing my PhD. I was hired and promptly laid off in November 2022 as a part of a 5% reduction in force that the company implemented. My impression is that Illumina is very much a sequencer and reagent-focused company, and any work taking place outside of this (ie more innovative projects that are not part of the company's traditional revenue stream) are not going to be valued in the near future.

Pros

Exempt staffs are given company shares Perks like goodies, company merchandise souvenirs are given away by work-life balance committees regularly.

Cons

SG site is competing with HQ(US) instead of leveraging and collaborating, making a distinct difference between 2 sites in terms of decision making, culture and pratices. Management is becoming more bureaucratic, multilayers created redundacies. Good leaders left. To fill the vacancies and the yearly promotion quota, a person would get promoted based on the year of service rather than competency. Departments compete with each other, favorism is obvious in vendor selection.

Pros

The company events are *lavish*and occur often. Also an endless stream of ‘swag’!

Cons

Look no farther than the open letter from Carl Icahn to the shareholders. This organization is grossly mismanaged, irresponsible and needs an overhaul. The commercial organization (sales and marketing) is deeply deceptive and you will regularly be asked to compromise basic values. The monopoly is over and the market will correct itself in the coming 1-2 years, so if you seek to be on a team that is quickly unraveling then Illumina would be good place to land. The PR/ social media and DEI groups do an excellent job creating a facade this is a wonderful organization that is committed to doing the right thing. Once you get a peek behind the curtain, it is managed by a group of inept leaders that will only judge your work on your popularity status. The marketing group specifically is useless outside of creating illusions, which soon customers will be aware they have been sold something that doesn’t exist. It is led by a woman that should be removed and frankly investigated, along with the ceo. I joined this organization with the hopes of making an impact, but instead everyday I feel horrified my reputation will be associated with this ‘team’.

Pros

Creative teams, collaborative in some functions, development opportunities

Cons

Ethics low priority, not inclusive of different perspectives, lean teams, lead by title, lack of transparency from top down