Vantaggi
A very nice place to work. Most people are collegial, outgoing and helpful and the company makes a sincere effort to treat its employees well. Salaries are relatively generous, although it is hard for any employer to keep up with the cost of living in the Bay Area.
Svantaggi
Many talented people are leaving the company. This is hard to watch happen. There are growing problems in middle management as more people are promoted because they are good individual contributors in a specific area and not because they are talented managers who can help their teams achieve the best for the business. When people are disproportionately rewarded because they are popular and well-liked, it generates a feedback loop that incentivizes self-promotion and political jockeying over managerial competencies. It is great that Genentech puts so much emphasis on interpersonal skills as it sustains the culture of friendliness and openness that so many of us value, however the company should consider what is falling by the wayside when niceness and self-promotion are so heavily valued at the expense of other skills. Genentech is remarkably conflict avoidant for a company rooted in science and this mindset leads to burdensome processes, including overly flat decision-making, deficits in critical thinking and, amongst the leadership, the inability to make the kind of tough calls that are sometimes necessary for an organization to run effectively. Some of the problems described in other reviews here stem from problems with management and others are due to the general sense of fear many are feeling due to rapidly growing competition, biosimilars, and tightening budgets.