A launching point for software developers; but don't stay too long... - Software Engineer Siemens Employee Review

2.0
13 Apr 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I worked for Siemens for just over 4 years. I worked in both the US and in Germany. At first I was 'star-struck' that I was working for a large corporation like Siemens. Plenty of travel opportunities and what I thought was 'high-tech' projects. The corporate brain-washing they feed college recruits leads you to believe that you'll be working on 'world changing' projects. What's good with Siemens: 1) Work/Life balance is good (but only Siemens it's filled with aggressive employees) 2) Benefits are fair (but not the salary) 3) Chances to live in lost cost of living areas of the country (Tennessee) 4) Good travel per-diems

Cons

Over my 4 years I had the opportunity to meet and work with many other Siemens employees from Tennessee, Georgia, and Germany. Many of the other Siemens employees are middle aged guys who have no plans whatsoever of ever leaving Siemens or changing for the better. They just sit back waiting for retirement and have no energy to change. Their portfolio of technical skills was assembled back in the 90s and early 2000s. Over time I started realizing that Siemens suffers from a lot of problems: 1) Way too much politics between US and Germany. (Spoiler alert - Germany ALWAYS wins!) 2) Salaries were below average for other software companies. 3) The technology Siemens uses is at least a decade behind. And when they do 'play' with newer technology, the older employees get first grabs at using it, which in the end leads to disasters because they haven't kept up with things since the 90s. I wish I had recorded some of the technical conversations I had with 'Senior Developers'...some of them have no concept of topics regarding cyber security, modern programming languages and modern practices. 4) There are way too many older employees that are standing in the way of younger employees. They've been there forever, doing things the same way over and over again. Within one year of leaving Siemens, I was making more than 30% more money, working for a 'true' high-tech company, working with modern technology and leading my own team of software developers. NONE of this would have been possible if I had stayed at Siemens.

Explore other reviews about Siemens

5.0
28 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Work life balance, great experience , great people, flexible hours

Cons

idk haven’t had bad experience

4.0
21 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Competitive pay, flex vacation/ PTO

Cons

Organizational restructuring seems more frequent than other companies I’ve worked for. Constant changes in processes. In four years I’ve seen change in incentive plan twice and not for the better even though they’ll tell you it is. You can make great money in sales still. Corporate alignment of rollouts of product timeline v. actual reality in the area level.

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