Cerner Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Cerner full-time for more than a year

Pros – Pay was decent. A few good employees. A good place for entry-level college grads who can be "programmed" into the Cerner way of thinking.

Cons – Benefits were sub-par. Hours expected to work were ridiculous. 65-70 hours weeks were not uncommon. Constant firedrills due to management's lack of direction. Unfortunately management didn't recognize any suggestions for improvement other than their own. Seemed company had a knack of hiring people that were either inexperienced or incompetent. It was obvious a lot of people were just there for a paycheck. Somehow they managed to keep their jobs. The good employees only stayed for a year or two then left the company. This was by far the most poorly managed, unorganized, dysfunctional place I've ever worked.

Advice to Senior Management – Do something, anything, to keep good employees. And for God's sake, be serious when you give your "work/life balance" propaganda speeches.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cerner full-time for more than a year

Pros – -Health care software is important. They aren't making stupid apps or other software toys; they are making important products, they know this and they take it seriously. They are working closely with clients to develop requirements for their software.
-If you work hard you can go home and still work reasonable hours. True, there are a lot of people who get in early and stay late, but they weren't accomplishing any more than I was, they just wanted to make it appear like they were working really hard for their performance evaluations I suppose. I worked about 45-50 hour weeks. I never had an issue getting a raise and always got my tasks in on time. Moving up in a big company is mostly a political process, sure. Just make sure you interact with your manager daily and keep them up to date and they will know how hard you work.
-All of the software engineers in my department were very competent and I enjoyed working with them.
-They are building a large gym in the middle of the engineering buildings. A lot of people have been asking for this and are going to be really happy.

Cons – -There is quite a bit of legacy software still floating around on any of the established teams. It is hard to keep up to date; it really needs to be just rewritten or dropped. There are many newer teams working on modern software designs that don't have this problem. Unfortunately I was not on those teams.
-The cafeteria food is cheap in quality but not price. But it was convenient so I ate it everyday.
-Ironically, the health insurance plan is weak. It is expensive even after a program to earn points and lower the premiums. There are only a few doctors onsite for thousands of employees and their families. I waited weeks for an appointment.
-A lot of emphasis is placed on teaching engineers about medical business rules and roles. They believe that if the engineers think like a nurse they will write bug free software for nurses. In reality if all of that time was spent instead teaching them to think like engineers through actual technical training and discussion and leave the designers (who are nurses) to think like nurses, the software would probably be more bug free. Leave the software architects who are already experienced engineers to seeing both sides of the picture, and let the engineers just focus on being good engineers.
-A lot of testing in my department was done manually. This takes weeks and misses things whereas automated testing would take hours and not miss those same things. I understand it takes time to invest in automated testing and time is money. But spend the time and money, because you lose both with manual testing.

Advice to Senior Management – My immediate manager was actually very skilled and I don't have advice for him. Though I think the higher up in management you get, the further you are from the issues that affect the people below you, so just make sure to keep up dialogue with the managers and people below you and stay on top of all the details about the software that you are responsible for.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Cerner full-time

Pros – Great people, aggressively innovative, great vision and motivated culture, comprehensive approach to building the patient centric electronic health record, poised for growth - constantly focuses on "what's next".

Cons – A bit too focused on cost control and profit margins instead of using it's tremendous cash reserves to expand its reach and influence into new areas. Does not seem to value older associates with experience.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't give up on the legacy applications. There is a lot of innovation left in the electronic record.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Cerner full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – As long as you are ambitious, committed, and have one of the good managers Cerner is a good place to work. It's not a place for anyone who just wants a 'job' . You have to care.

Cons – Sometimes there are log hours, but what company doesn't have long hours these days.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue trying to make things better.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cerner full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – If you put your energy into going the extra mile, limiting your use of the phrase "that is not my job", and are determined to succeed, you will go far, fast here.

Cons – Nearly every job with a good trajectory for your career requires a significant amount of travel. 50+%

Advice to Senior Management – Focus on where you want the company to succeed, not on everything that could potentially be done. Empower employees to fix problems before they become disasters.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cerner full-time for less than a year

Pros – 1) Cerner is definitely dedicated to the improvement of health care systems, which makes any job related to IP dev rewarding.
2) Training is heavily invested in. New associates aren't expected to know every single detail when brought on.
3) Cerner has an approach of hiring as much talent as they can, as opposed to squeezing every last bit out of existing employees. While projects can become a bit overwhelming, new hires and consultants are being brought on every week to help.
4) They really do invest a ton of time in testing code, which is nice because if you make a mistake, it will almost always get caught before going to production.

Cons – 1) Parking for new hires is pretty bad.
2) Management can be unorganized, with sudden changes happening to projects quite frequently.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus more on rewarding employees who deliver as opposed to those who have been with the company for years.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cerner full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great work experience; highly intelligent associates; sr. leadership is visionary; the applications we build affect me, my family, and friends; leadership has invested time and energy into my career growth; great benefits (I walk downstairs to go to the clinic & pharmacy).

Cons – Cerner is growing very fast and we are experiencing physical growing pains with parking and seating challenges. But that's a good problem to have!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cerner full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Tons to learn, great people, great benefits. Love it!

Cons – Salary is not too good. People may quite due to other offers. Everyone needs Cerner knowldege

Advice to Senior Management – Increase parking

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Cerner full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Short training for the needs of the company at the time.
Do what you are told do not think or speak other than what you are told to, you will do ok
As long as you are 30 or younger you will do ok

Cons – Never learn from the past
Will make the same plans ( if they worked or not) again in a 3 to 5 year time span
When looking at some one to hire will look at age first
I could go on but that should be enough to make you think again

Advice to Senior Management – Nothing would help. they would and will not learn

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Cerner as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Great office & location
Niche provider to an industry that will continue to grow whilst others contract
IP available to employees
One of the leading providers of software solutions to Health sector
Financial stability of organisation - longevity in market

Cons – Antiquated management structure and systems
Lack of trust and support within employee groups and between managers and staff
Relatively inflexible and resistant to constructive criticism
Work within the specific scope of your role and don't overlap with other position functions - roles become repetitive and churn patterns predictable
Huge HO costs as a result of over staffing and job creation for MO
Inconsistent approach to People, Culture and Career development

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend