Golden Handcuffs came off this year! - Anonymous employee McMaster-Carr Employee Review

2.0
Nov 11, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great benefits: Tuition reimbursement, great bonus and retirement plan. Forty hour work week. Nice co-workers. That is about it.

Cons

No room for advancement. The company paid for my MBA and I was forced to leave since they do not promote from within. It is a great place to work for a while especially if you can make it six years since you will be vested in their retirement program but it is NOT a company to work at if you are looking for advancement opportunities. Golden handcuffs is the best way to describe the culture.

Explore other reviews about McMaster-Carr

5.0
Jun 7, 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
Jun 16, 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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