Brilliant and driven people pleasure to work with, but company lacks retention of the well groomed talent
Pros
I must admit, Stryker does do one thing really well: talent acquisition. I've never met such a large collection of winners in one place before. It has a culture that seeks out competitive, intelligent younger people (mostly fresh college grads) who thrive at being the best, and enjoy being recognized for it. As a result, you get engaged, hard working, talented future leaders who thrive on challenges and growth. With those ingredients, naturally it’s easy to get on board with the company’s vision. I did love everyone’s commitment to being the best because it motivates you to better as well. Sure work/life balance is great here but hardly anyone has kids fresh out of college. They're all accustomed to burning the midnight oil, just like finals week. It’s awesome to be able to count on your colleagues. Friendships I’ve acquired at Stryker has certainly survived beyond my time there. Most managers have left good impressions on me and I was able to have positive influence on others. I would go out of way to write a great referral letter for just about anyone from Stryker.
Cons
Despite the competitive nature of their employees, Stryker is not competitive at all when it comes to pay, especially here in the bay area. It's next to impossible to afford a 1-bedroom apartment here with their pay scale. Thus you have 4-6 managers (half of whom possess MBA’s) shacking up as roommates in order to afford rent or stay at home with the parents. So... what ends up happening? The majority of the exceptional talent ends up leaving once they hit their stride (usually when they realize they could get paid 50-100% more elsewhere). In my opinion, this is a crucial turning point for any company, especially medical device manufacturers. This is the point when Stryker has successfully groomed their talent with industry awareness, growth mindsets and primed all the tools to drive innovation and take Stryker further… this is also the point when competitors swoop in. We all understand, money is not everything. However, after about 2 years on the grind, going above and beyond it’s tough to stay loyal. If you’re still struggling to keep up with rent and huge debts from college loans, offers of a bigger paycheck becomes more attractive.
