Solid Midwest Company | Great Products | Meh pay - Software Engineer II Garmin Employee Review

4.0
Jul 28, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

THE PEOPLE! My team has become a little family to me even though I've never met any of them in person yet. Great WLB though YMMV based on your team. Only worked late-night hours or weekends twice in 2 years & both times were personal choices that my manager tried to talk me out of. Love the fitness/wellness wearable product space. Really interesting data to dig into & feels good to support products that help people live happier & healthier lives. Really great 401k match (although Garmin's contribution vests over 5 years). Great medical - covers my wife and I under a HDHP/HSA at absolutely no cost to me. Garmin also contributes to your HSA annually. Big emphasis on career goals & helping you achieve them. Received 2 cost-of-living adjustments that seem to happen around June, though, I'm not sure that everyone receives them. Huge organization - can likely jump teams and do something completely different if you wish.

Cons

The pay is okay-to-good for the Midwest region - not competitive at all anywhere else. Small (~3%) annual raises based on merit. Things tend to move quite slowly at Garmin. Hybrid RTO: 3 days in-office, 2 days WFH. HR swears that there are no exceptions for permanent WFH....unless you've been with the company for a while but they don't talk about that. If you live within 200(!) miles of an office, policy states you MUST go in. Career progression is quite slow - need a minimum tenure of 5 years AT Garmin to be promoted from a SWE II to a Senior SWE. Culture is a bit conservative in the way that the company is a bit "old-school" & really values structure/processes. Not necessarily a bad thing, but might not vibe with some people. For the ambitious - you can easily slow down here & get complacent while you wait for your 401k match to vest or for a promotion.

Explore other reviews about Garmin

5.0
Jul 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Strong work/life balance and culture

Cons

No significant or noteworthy con

2.0
Jul 17, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Near 0 threat of layoffs - Fitness oriented culture - Main office has many amenities and is very modern - Good benefits (Health, dental, vision, education)

Cons

- Highly discriminatory, constant meetings about missing hiring inclusion metrics required by law - Little to no opportunity for promotion due to average tenure being 15+ years. This means you will stay in one roll for at least 5 - 7 years for one promotion. - Required highschool gpa to be hired, even if you have a doctorate degree - All salaries are a minimum of 30% lower than the national average due to their "Benefits" - Extremely top heavy with a team of 5 people having 7 levels of management above them - Main motivation for team structure changes being caused by massive amount of retirements instead of growth

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