clutchcargo

Thanks for the responses.

I worked for Genzyme for almost 18 years. It's a great place but also a political one.

I am currently at a biotech start up and having a blast but you never know if they will get to the finish line.

Genentech owns the finish line.

How about places to live?

Is Palo Alto all it is cracked up to be?

hyperpm

My neighbor who used to work for UCSF now works for them and says she likes her job.

AsianQing

Every job has politics. I have a good friend that works there and he told me the benefits are awesome. Just a few weeks ago they had Black Eyed Peas and another group perform at their celebration thingy.

73Zero

The Anniversary Celebration was a BLAST...it was trippy seeing practically EVERY Genentech employee on site (over 10,000 people)...plus, it was nice being able to be "excused" from work on a Monday, and fed lots of good food and booze at noontime...hahaha...

The performers we had (in order) were:

#1 The Foo Fighters (These guys ROCK!! Dave Grohl was absolutely hilarious and very friendly to the crowd)
#2 Bob Dylan (We couldn't understand a DAMNED word he sang.)
#3 The Black Eyed Peas (They were off the hook! And they were also very crowd friendly.)
#4 The Eagles (I didn't stay for this...)

clutchcargo

The recruiter made a point of talking about the celebration to get at how cool they are and the things they can do because of their size.

My kids were in shock when I told them.

I will give Dylan a pass because he has been photographed in an S2000, though I don't know if he drives one.

I heard the Eagles were the headliners (who made that call?).

73Zero

Dunno...the rumors were floating around for weeks as to who would be performing that day...the strongest of the rumors was that U2 was going to play...now THAT I would've stayed for!

Eluded

I met a trio of chix at BridgeSchool from JenenTech. They were pretty hot and seems like they gotta good culture going on there!!

BUT LET ME WARN YOU! If you are not from around here you might not know this but... the bay area has the highest number of single men to women in the US (including alaska).

Lice Locket

Holy crap, so many Biotech pplz here! I work at Bayer, but my dream was and is Genentech. Got interviewed there TWICE but with no luck From what I hear, its the king of benefits (backed up with rankings in Forbes magazine) and its where most biotech ppl dreams of working for.

73Zero

The interview process IS pretty nuts here...but just keep trying and also look into alternate routes into the company. I did phone interview after phone interview, with no luck. Finally, I applied through a temp agency (TechLink), and they got me in Temp-to-Perm. After a few months, I finally got the job permanently.

As far as benefits are concerned, yes, they are ONE of the best companies out there. But believe it or not, I have a friend who works with me, and he tells me that Amgen's benefits are MUCH better...he'd know, as he used to work there. He tells me that the only reason he left Amgen to come to Genentech was because they offered him a much higher salary.

00S2K01S4

I would say Amgen's benefits are not much better. Seems to be more inline with the rest of the industry these days. They have changed their medical benefits.