The worst part about Bosch is that it is consistently behind the times in technology and it is very resistant to change because of the office politics. Ideas are more likely to be swatted down because who thought of it then if it makes sense. Part of this is because the company resembles a billion tiny islands then any large single piece, each island has their "stake" and god help you if you trudge onto their sanctuary of control. The other part of it is that many people have to be with the company for 10 to 15 years before they make any substantial headway in promotion. Once they have the power they hold onto it FEROCIOUSLY! It is a German company to the core, and a natural born German will get promoted twice as fast as a natural born American regardless of your comparative work effort. Even people who have worked here for 20+ years will often be serving under a German citizen who has a quarter of the experience and seemingly just out of college.
The average age of a low level manager (less then 5 reports) is well over 40. The age of a director (15-20 reports) is very near retirement age. There is only one member of senior management in North America that is not German and he is in the account/tax division. I think Bosch is probably a better resume sticker then a career for this reason. Go in, see what working for a company with 300,000 workers is like and then GET OUT before the cubicle you started in becomes the cubicle you retire in!
