HARMAN International Reviews

I have been working at HARMAN International full-time

Pros – - challanging environment
- constant growth of business
- global organization
- sexy products

Cons – - constant pressure, limited ressources
- very financial metrics driven
- quarterly thinking, no long term planing

Advice to Senior Management – know your business better and have more respect for your stakeholders

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at HARMAN International full-time for less than a year

Pros – Great products and a lot of passion around execution and excellence!

Cons – Smaller business than what i am use to so working on Change Manageemnt

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the great work!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at HARMAN International

Pros – Office was a friendly environment
Employees get great discounts on products

Cons – They were really going through a lot of changes that changed the culture of the company
Systems are very outdated

Advice to Senior Management – Give more benefits to employees

I worked at HARMAN International full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great engineering teams so incredible products.

Cons – You will find only one, at most 3 people at the leadership level in HQ that are competent. Most should not be at the executive level. Direct quote from someone on the executive team “People that have MBA are just show offs”. What!? And this quote is not “taken out of context”. Is says exactly what you think it says. If you don’t believe me when I say that skills are lacking at the top, just attending one of the open “investor” calls (very embarrassing for Harman).

The CEO dictates the culture of the company and unfortunately, that is not his strength. He is no doubt a person with strong financial skills, but he is far from being a mature leader. HR leadership at the top level, especially in the US is second rate, actually, let me correct myself, third rate, at best. Turnover rates are of course horrible! They try to hire the best (and from top companies) and guess what The best end up leaving (usually within the first year to a year and a half) due to a complete lack of professionalism and expertise at the VP level. People at the top, get promoted purely based on friendships. You better be having personal dinners with the CEO for you to be one of the “favorites”. Funny enough, the CEO is bold enough to mention this in one of his recent articles published in New York Times (way to go communications department). Last, but not least, if you are a woman, stay away! No matter how intelligent and accomplished you are, you will be just an object to look at, nothing more. Do your research, talk to people that worked there (you can always find them on LinkedIn).

The success of the company is built purely on the passion of the acoustics engineering teams (I am not an engineer but their contribution is what keeps the company going). What goes on at Harman is shameful and there is no-one to stop it. Now, are the products exciting? Yes. Can the job be challenging and interesting? Yes. But be aware, is you are someone from one of the best-in-class organizations and are used to mature leadership, you will not find that here. It just does not exist. This will not change unless the CEO is replaced.

Advice to Senior Management – You do have some incredible people working for you, let them help you create a 21st century culture in your organization. Your way or the highway is obviously not working. You have great products that people enjoy around the world, stop screwing it up.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at HARMAN International full-time for more than a year

Pros – the sound technology.
some big names in automotive as customers.

Cons – the management in india has no vision and roadmap.
management is trying to do too many things at once and worries about only their targets/bonus and never for employees.No proper place for work environment. like in one tiny cubicle 6 people are sitting and management does not care about it. Though it calls itself a product company it is just another WRO. ( people, culture everything !) some managers are like dictators and totally incompetent.

Advice to Senior Management – Have some vision and care for people and have some grass root level engagement with employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at HARMAN International full-time for less than a year

Pros – Work environment is good.
Compensation is better.
We can learn a lot.

Cons – Recreation facilities are not good.
Organisational structure is not good.

Advice to Senior Management – The management should work on the job assignment according to the individual's profile.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at HARMAN International

Pros – Most people in mid management are wonderful

Cons – Upper management has heads in clouds and noses up butts

Advice to Senior Management – Get to know the people that make up your company

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at HARMAN International full-time for less than a year

Pros – It is a 2 years old office. The process here is chaos but it is great opportunities to learn and make your name. No work overtime.

Cons – stingy company and not good at motivate employee

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at HARMAN International full-time for more than a year

Pros – come any time and leave any time of the day
no need to take leave instead working from home

Cons – no employee growth plan
work scope not defined
no career progression path defined
Dictatorship
weak policies hence everyone get to choose what they want
HR still budding

Advice to Senior Management – device a strategy to control attrition, retain smart working people, remove dictators mangers
HR need to more active

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at HARMAN International full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Fairly competitive pay
Great sounding product
Some people who have been in the industry for a very long time and new Harman in the good old days

Cons – IT infrastructure is among the worst I've ever seen
Complete lack of resources
- Leads to a finger pointing, non-cooperative work environment
- Incredibly high amount of office politics
Too much outsourcing to India and China

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in IT infrastructure and top IT talent
Start investing for the future (3-5 years out), and not just for the coming fiscal quarter-end. Being so cheap is hurting Harman's long term prospects for market dominance

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend