It's not the best job but it's not the worst one either and considering the state of the economy... I'm genuinely curious, why are so many people quitting? Are there better jobs out there available? I highly doubt it, but that seems to be the only logical explanation. So would you be so kind to share?
22 replies (most recent on top)
People are leaving because they are getting laid off every 6 months.
People are leaving because they are sick of being put through this every 6 months. Sitting around waiting to be canned. “Thanks for all your hard work but some new guy in India who we only have to pay a fraction is happily now employed. No hard feelings, right?” Right. It’s just business.
Wonder how the Essence and Values translate?
I am a patent owner on https://www.onscope.com/ipowner/en/ip/ptus/16844402.html. Many of us were laid off last October. Jon was laid off as well, but when I was (October).
Short answer to the forum subject in question. YES, there are better jobs and you are correct Bose is not the worst place to work. You have to get out there and be proactive. There are much better opportunities that are safe. I left last December to go work for a much larger company where weekly layoffs aren’t a thing. I received a 20% pay bump, better benefits and feel supported on a daily basis. I also have a realistic workload which is something I never felt at Bose. Best of luck but get to looking!
I’m scared for tomorrow
Bose is a sinking ship now. I'm an senior engineer and got exceeded expectations last 4 years. I am one of the employees who got moved from In The Home to On The Go. But I am scared now seeing things happening. Seeing what other companies in the market are paying for my level and for the work that I am doing, I have decided to look for another job. Have got 2 interviews lined up. Hope some thing will work out with way better pay.
Interesting thread I found here. On the theme and long list, a couple of postings have offered, about the long and deep Bose history of investments leading to no products or profits. A sampling of what Bose Health Division is patenting, there are more:
SMART RELAXATION MASK
https://www.onscope.com/ipowner/en/ip/ptwo/US2020018610.html
DYNAMIC MASKING DEPENDING ON SOURCE OF SNORING
https://www.onscope.com/ipowner/en/ip/ptwo/US2020018479.html
SMART-SAFE MASKING AND ALERTING SYSTEM
https://www.onscope.com/ipowner/en/ip/ptus/16278380.html
SLEEP SYSTEM
https://www.onscope.com/ipowner/en/ip/ptus/16844402.html
Profit-making products? When? If? Through what successful sales channels? Against many other established or more nimble startups chasing "sleep"? No idea, only watching this from afar. Any questions asked got back platitudes about the future and "don't need to know more". The SVP of Bose Health was out the door awhile back. Involuntary? Not sure.
As Dr. Bose himself reflected on in the history of ANR spanning a decade+ until profitability. Levels of prolonged investment/expense that no public company could likely do in the face of financial transparency requirements and shareholder's profit expectations. Dr. Bose said something like "he would have been fired at a public company."
The flaw is that "hiding" the high level of prolonged speculative, some might say wandering, investments, becomes impossible if the required level of focus, delivery, and profitability from close-in products for the company fails. Failure made apparent to the thousands who have lost their jobs over the last 6-8 years.
Ask yourself, what products does Bose make that’s amazing, We have some products that are stale on the market (qc35, sound link around ear, soundsport wireless,) we don’t really do anything great. We have given up completely on being high end, It’s a shame too because we have great products and professional like outdoor environmental speakers lots of cool stuff that we could charge lots of money for but since we don’t have an ecosystem the time altogether we don’t really have a plan to make it work it’s a shame we used to have cool products like the video wave music monitors even the waves system was popular I worked in a retail store and people would buy the waves system all the time the wave sound touch if they could’ve integrated it if they could’ve made equal two products work like Eco one day that are brought in Eco want an equal to we would have had a much better plan but the decision to run equal one in Eco to as if they were complimentary
When a FAANG company can double or triple your total compensation, and layoffs keep happening, that’s probably why people are leaving
Continuation of megadollars spent for no discernable profit-making products -
Bose Electroforce,
Project Sound (20+ years of active suspension research, sold for pennies on the dollar awhile back, majority lost their jobs because acquirer took patents/tech, few people),
Induction Cooktop (https://www.cnet.com/news/bose-induction-stovetop-cooking-system/)
FDA approved OTC hearing aids (now 2 years beyond FDA De Novo approval, big expense sink, products no show, other more established entering market),
Sleepbuds first-gen recall/EOL (original technology was acquired from Hush Technology, not done in-house, 2nd try just released),
A number of investments via Bose Ventures (https://bose.ventures/, check out the list, ever hear anything of these?) that have come to anything apparent,
more?
"Don’t believe the hype that Bose is special and unique."
Can't agree more. Bose tries to brainwash new hires, making employees think Bose culture is special and unique. For example:
"Privately Owned" "Not work for wall street". There are many privately owned companies out there.
Bose is certainly not alone. These actually limited the development of the company. It cannot get outside investment, when the revenue cannot cover cost, it has to lay off people.
"MIT owns majority of the company". This becomes a problem. Dr. Bose did this for his own reason. Nobody dares to sell the company or bring it public.
"Innovation and technology" When as last time invent something new? Noise cancelling? That's decades ago. The company tried several things but failed miserably:
Bose Ride, Bose Build, Bose AR, Bose TV.....
"Growth" Which direction? Up or down?
"Financial viability": Obviously currently it is Not viable.
I don't plan to leave but I do think about it at least once a week.
Simply put. Too many programs, too many meetings, too many problems. Too little time.
Truth, get out of the Bose echo chamber. There is a greater purpose, better cultures, and a bigger opportunity to have a tangible impact on the outside.
From my experience And those I know, if you are a tech person at Bose like in engineering, pm, design, research you should have no problem getting a job pretty quickly and most likely at a much higher salary and at a much more stable company. Yes even during Covid. I stayed because I believed in the mission and the culture and that I was contributing. Didn’t matter how much I did - still got laid off with other great folks. Best thing as I ended up on a place with just as great a culture and paid more. Don’t believe the hype that Bose is special and unique.
Hey, even the ex ceo found a job, I don't belive there are no jobs out there. I was talking to a HM across the country and he asked me why he is getting so good applicants from Bose.
two rounds of layoffs in 3 months? it's enough to get anyone thinking of jumping ship...
I'm an engineer with 30+ years experience. 15 were at Bose. I got a long well with my coworkers and always got good reviews. And I got laid off because the project I was working on got cancelled and. they want to be 'fair' so they laid of those of us on the project. Including an awesome DSP engineer.
This is after we all worked 60-70 hour weeks to reach a deadline that wasn't needed in the end. The summer was all work, and then boom - lay off because the sleep buds recall threw us all in a tizzy. Now if we did better due diligence about testing battery life, we might not have made the error in investing so much in a product with a faulty battery (hearing aid companies knew to stay away from the battery we used) - but we didn't because the management makes bad decisions all the time.
Did I expect loyalty? No. I did however expect, based on great reviews and a decently broad skill set that the first step wasn't a layoff package with 3 weeks to find a new job (I found 3). It made no sense. Crush the spirits of all of us and then say 'oh, we'll help you find a job internally'. At m point - the 15 years meant decent severance.
There was no reason to accept the other jobs. I will say this: waiting for severance in my case was the right thing. I wouldn't have gone looking because I loved working with my coworkers. We had a great team vibe.
I got a job right away. All of us who were laid off got jobs - a few of the UX folks I know had more difficulty because they didn't get the severance or extra weeks to find jobs that some of us us did, but they are still in better places. Nobody regrets it. And my former bose colleagues who'd long left the company reached out to me and said working for companies where good ideas don't die in the hall of bad leadership was really thrilling.
I got laid off last time around in July, I'm an engineer – I was able to get a new job within 2 weeks with higher pay and stock options. I enjoyed working at Bose, however they are unfortunately a sinking ship at this point. Everyone should be reconsidering their future employment.
Obviously.. Employees will be panicked seeing the layoffs happening every 3 months. And on top of that, some employees are paid retention bonus, which gave the impression that employees who did not get retention bonus are not safe (A big mistake).
Also, out there, there are a lot of job openings which are ready to pay higher salary. Bose is definitely a low paying company compared to others in the market.
People who went the extra mile to get products launched are being kicked to the curb. Doing your job, and doing it exceptionally well, doesn't earn you any loyalty from the company. Everyone is expendable, and the continual cycle of late launches and layoffs means there is no job security,
Talented and qualified people who know their own value are leaving for more secure jobs at higher pay at better-managed companies. Bose is full of people who stick around forever because they don't have much value on the job market. People are leaving because they're smart and they're thinking of their future.
I think some folks don’t want to leave but are getting laid off. In light of that, some would rather be proactive than to be a sitting duck. And others are leaving simply because reorgs shake things up and cause people to take stock of where they are in life. Suddenly, they realize their colleagues who left are making more money at a more stable company.
It’s a myth that there are no jobs out there. Less than in the past but they are there and even desirable ones. Most people I know who got laid off found one pretty quickly and often at a higher salary and at good companies. Bose carries weight in your resume.