Lack of vision - Senior Software Engineer Varian Medical Systems Employee Review

4.0
Jun 4, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

solid technology from early 50s and 60s. Used to focus on technology, balance of work life, used to collaborate a lot with close by Stanford University. Product is used to save life fighting cancer. Great head quarter location, in Palo Alto. Still have vacation time for regular employees.

Cons

Current top management team does not have a vision, esp long term vision on how to grow the company or how to develop new technology/ focus on R&D. Instead focus on outsourcing, cut costs, hide away from low sales, finger pointing, promoting incompetence, increase headcount at VP level, borrowing money to buy stock while ignoring if business is heading south. Previous top management teams are PhDs or at least hold a Master degree, but not anymore. People got promoted just because they can talk great or go at finger pointing or they know so and so ( whether belonging to same church or alumnus of Bringham Young University etc). New HR staff & top management is pondering to take away all employee vacation time n instead have no limit on vacation time BUT subject to your manager ( empowering manager so they can work employees like slaves.). Money spend on ERP far exceeded original budget but still system is not efficient , because company outsourced it to India. Original thought was low cost but turn out project was half baked, way over budget n employees are still complaining that ERP system is too manual. Subsequently hired IT staff from India and that is not helping situation, but just one bad decision after another. Payroll moved out to Salt Lake City reason cannot hire good payroll manager in Silicon Valley. Top management did not think about which company in Salt Lake City uses ADP apps called ProBusiness, thus hired someone also without that sort of experience but still charges high salary n makes all kinds of payroll mistakes.

Explore other reviews about Varian Medical Systems

5.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Innovative products with high competition and market leader

Cons

Poor management decisions can lead to mismanagement

2.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good amount of downtime. Company car. Decent benefits. Fairly autonomous (depending on manager). Great troubleshooting experience.

Cons

Management can be overbearing. After being bought by Siemens, the company no longer values patient treatment over profit. Work life balance is seriously lacking. You may have downtime but you can’t plan anything during the week due to being on-call. Overtime is now heavily monitored, where it used to be a big selling point. Seeing as the hourly pay is relatively low compared to the job responsibilities.

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