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Illumina Reviews

Updated 26 May 2023

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Found 1,846 of over 2K reviews
4.0
75% Recommend to a Friend
Illumina President & CEO Francis deSouza
77% Approve of CEO

Found 1,833 of over 2K reviews

4.0
75%
Recommend to a Friend
77%
Approve of CEO
Illumina President & CEO Francis deSouza
Francis deSouza
980 Ratings
Pros
  • "Forward thinking company with great respect for work/life balance(in 120 reviews)

  • "The cutting edge technology and wow-factor for the products are impressive(in 56 reviews)

  • Cons
  • "You must know how to set your work/life balance boundaries(in 92 reviews)

  • "Incredibly fast paced which doesn’t suit everyone(in 95 reviews)

  • More Pros and Cons
    Pros & Cons are excerpts from user reviews. They are not authored by Glassdoor.

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    1. 5.0
      Current Employee, more than 1 year

      Great company values and culture

      22 Nov 2022 - Field Applications Scientist 
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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

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    2. 5.0
      Current Employee, more than 1 year

      Amazing place to work, full of bright minds and compassion

      23 May 2023 - Scientist 1 in Salisbury, England
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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    4. 1.0
      Current Employee

      Extremely Poor Compensation

      24 Apr 2023 - Principal Engineer 
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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      16 people found this review helpful
    5. 1.0
      Former Employee, more than 5 years

      Bad management

      1 Apr 2023 - Anonymous Employee 
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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      26 people found this review helpful
    6. 2.0
      Current Employee, more than 5 years

      Not what it used to be

      26 Apr 2023 - Staff Field Applications Scientist 
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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      8 people found this review helpful
    7. 3.0
      Current Employee, more than 8 years

      Weak management.

      8 May 2023 - Technician in Salisbury, England
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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      2 people found this review helpful
    8. 3.0
      Former Employee, less than 1 year

      My Directionless Time at Illumina

      25 May 2023 - Senior Bioinformatics Scientist in Salisbury, England
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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    9. 3.0
      Former Employee, more than 5 years

      Deteriorating

      13 May 2023 - Engineer in Singapore
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

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      4 people found this review helpful
    10. 1.0
      Current Employee, more than 5 years

      It is all a facade

      14 Mar 2023 - Commercial Leader in San Diego, CA
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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’.

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      29 people found this review helpful

      Illumina Response

      Glassdoor Feedback

      Your comments are concerning because they are inconsistent with Illumina’s policies and practices. We are committed to maintaining a culture that is open, inclusive, and fair. It would be helpful to better understand your experiences. If you are willing to discuss your comments, please contact an HR representative at HumanResources@illumina.com

    11. 3.0
      Current Employee

      Do the right thing

      26 May 2023 - Manager 
      Recommend
      CEO Approval
      Business Outlook

      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

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    Illumina Reviews FAQs

    Illumina has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5, based on over 2,123 reviews left anonymously by employees. 75% of employees would recommend working at Illumina to a friend and 64% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -3% over the last 12 months.

    According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Illumina employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.9 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Illumina. This rating has decreased by -2% over the last 12 months.

    75% of Illumina employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated Illumina 3.8 out of 5 for work life balance, 4.0 for culture and values and 3.8 for career opportunities.

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