I've been thinking for years about writing this review. I was employed by Starkey for 8 years. After having friends leave, and leaving myself, I have come to the following conclusions:
1) Starkey was born of Manufacturing. Therefore *everybody* there is a manufacturing-level employee. This *includes* R&D personnel. What does this mean as an engineer? Have your butt in a seat because heat on a seat means money in the bank. You are making a widget, regardless of what you or anybody else thinks or at what level you contribute.
2) Starkey suffers chronically from The Peter Principle. To summarize, people are promoted as they show competence in their *current* position, not aptitude for the *next* position. Since people are *rarely* demoted, you end up with people promoted to the first level at which they perform incompetently, and left there. In the worst cases throughout Starkey these positions are positions of management, leadership, and architecture. You end up with people incompetent in their jobs *driving* the vision and/or execution of the company.
3) Now doubt due directly to #2, another well-known issue that Starkey - R&D in particular - suffers from what is commonly known as "the dead sea effect." Essentially, this is an oft-observed problem where the "water" has evaporated, leaving only the salt. In the case of R&D and Engineering firms, water is the employees who "move and shake", who challenge to make things better, who *bring in* expertise, advice, and passion. Those people, in an environment like Starkey R&D, quickly realize where they are; an organization that values heads-down-do-what-you're-told-manufacturing vs big picture, game-changing, innovative thinking. Combine this with The Peter Principle and you end up with "architects", "principle engineers", and even "managers" who shut down *any* new idea they don't readily understand - something I witnessed firsthand on numerous occasions during my tenure.
4) Their IT department is an antiquated behemoth of dated processes. In a day and age where it is *not* something to brag about to have your own data center (unless the lowest possible latency is critical to your business operations), Starkey IT will gladly give you a tour, brag about how only 12 people on earth have access to "this room", and even show off their spyware which allows them to do inspection on every packet traveling across their network worldwide. Couple this with recent lawsuits & revelations of corporate spying - search the star tribune for "fired starkey executive sues" - and it's no wonder that engineers who do good research are driven out of the company. I know of numerous engineers who have received *direct communication* from SENIOR IT management (yes, bypassing the engineer's manager, or any other chain of command) citing their web usage and even going so far as to report software usage to very senior folks in the company in an effort to have the engineer fired. It's also well-known within the company that IT leadership *actively reads* IM and e-mail; it's not just a historical record used if/when it's needed. It is a hostile, vindictive, and downright scary place to work for somebody who looks for ways to do things differently.
Make no mistake, if you are a person that wants to sit in a seat until you're 65 and color inside literally every line you see, you'll be fine here. If you aren't, well, you are wasting your time. Between old technology and what will quickly manifest itself as zero tolerance for risk, your resume is atrophying every day you spend here.
You will NOT move forward or up unless you are willing to "play ball" - another thing that is now public knowledge thanks to the haphazard, from-the-hip firings of 4 top executives by the founder for - what is widely believed to be - not promoting his stepson.
