A job, not a career - Anonymous employee McMaster-Carr Employee Review

3.0
2 Dec 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- excellent compensation and benefits - HR is knowledgeable and helpful - no overtime - Cafeteria food is pretty good and there's a good selection in the many vending machines (I'm easy to please) - co-workers - wicked smart and totally awesome, and totally underappreciated

Cons

- 12 year-old managers (well, barely out of college) with zero work experience and even less social skills - micro-management at its finest - favoritism IMO - consistent in its inconsistency regarding goals and procedures - in a broader sense, it is apparent, especially these days, that the company is too reactive rather than proactive in keeping up with the changing marketplace and employee culture.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
7 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Salary, benefits, coworkers, work/life balance

Cons

micromanagement at every level and job is boring at times

4.0
16 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Pay/benefits are incredibly generous - People are generally easy/nice to work with - Note that the Systems department seems to be fairly isolated from the negative issues discussed in other reviews (e.g. tension between warehouse workers and management) - I haven't experienced any of those issues within the systems department. In my opinion, Systems is a great place to work and develop as an engineer. - Hybrid work style (3 days in office). Personally, I like hybrid more than both fully in-office and fully remote styles. - Great cafeteria with good food and cheap prices. - Good work/life balance (outside of being on call, I can leave work at work).

Cons

- Work is not super interesting to me. I come from a highly technical, but very different (not ecommerce/industrial supplies), background where I was doing work I was much more interested in. No doubt there are folks in Systems who love the domain though. - While I'm not on call a ton (1-2 weeks every few months), I really hate being on call. I like to leave work at work. Note that joining at least one reliability team is expected within your first year or so.

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