Working at Cerner Corp. — Reviews by Employees

PAY: It depends on the level of experience you have. Cerner loves to hire new college students at $30-35K. With experience, I was able to get more than $40K. It sound like a good salary when I was hired but if you do the numbers, it sucks. I averaged 55 hours of chargeable time plus 10 hours of non-chargeable time (meetings, webinars, training, etc.) and 5-10 hours of travel. I was making $11-12 an hour. I made a few extra dollars a week hording my per diem.

RESPECT: The secret of earning respect is giving respect to your managers and coworkers no matter how incompetent they are. You also can also earn respect if you sleep with someone above your pay grade.

BENEFITS: I miss their benefits. I miss the Employee Stock Purchase Program the most. Their health care benefits are average for a company their size. if you work in KC, there are plenty of on campus benefits (gym, cafeteria, etc.). You are also near North Kansas City Hospital in case you have a heart attack.
If you are single or married, there is the poon benefit.

JOB SECURITY: When I was there, I was told that Cerner never laid anyone off. That is bs. If you put in the chargeable hours, you will have a secure position. If you leave your individuality at the door, you can also maintain a position with Cerner.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: It depends on the job. I was remote so WLB was nonexistent. I worked on site Monday-Thursday and was back home or working in the office in KC. I was also on call on the weekends, when necessary. If you are single and end up in a cool town, the balance of getting loaded every night can help. If you are married and take a job at Cerner, start looking for a divorce lawyer unless your mate travels also. That is the nature of the business.
It is not a kid friendly company because you never see them.

CAREER GROWTH: If you know how log chargeable hours that are higher than you coworkers and you are more incompetent that your supervisors, you should do well. Making your supervisor feel sexy will also help.

LOCATION: Do not take a remote position if you live in KC. You will not be allowed to work from home on Fridays. You will have to be in the office for the entire day.

CO-WORKER COMPETENCE: It is a flip of the coin. The rule for me is if I needed to know the correct answer, ask the person who is not attractive. The uglier the better.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: It is clean. You have what you need to work.

SUMMARY: I worked at Cerner 7 years ago. I am sure things have changed. I am now a consultant that works with Cerner and Epic clients. Working at Cerner for 2 years has paid many dividends for me. If you take a job with Cerner, have your 2-5 year outcome in mind. Do you want to make a career with Cerner, are you going to go into consulting, or will you use the experience to land a job somewhere else.

I didn't use any of the ratings since they don't really mean much. I'd like to take a different, more comical look into Cerner. Let's begin:

First off, I'd like to point out that while Neal ssspendsss more time in tanning booth than working on his ssspeechesss he'sss a pretty good bussssinesss man. You don't build a company like that while being incompetent. That doesn't mean I have to like the guy though.

The Velocity program; good idea, terrible execution. If they would just be upfront with the incoming Velocity participants it wouldn't be such a farce. Just tell us that you're keeping us in training until you can use us to fill attrition. They spew all this tripe about weighing your strengths and weaknesses during training to help place you in a position that suits your abilities. All they do is wait until someone gets fired or quits and then they place you in that vacated cube. At least if they told you that you wouldn't be so disillusioned for five weeks when your T-cells finally expel the last of the brainwashing fluid they shovel down your throat at Riverport.

I mean, if they are actually weighing your strengths and weaknesses then how do they explain how one Velocity consultant gets placed in a phone support job and another becomes the personal assistant to the number four guy in the company? Is there a checklist for strengths that accounts for blonde hair and looks good in Forever 21 jeans? Oh well, even if she didn't get that job on merit alone she'll still be fine. I mean, she might sleep with the right guy and become Director of the First Hand Foundation...

Anyone seen the Cerner 20th Anniversary book? There's a picture of Don Vito in there when he was about 3 first graders skinnier. Guess that's what being on the Cabinet DL will do to your waistline.

Speaking of waistlines, how about that HR Department? That's kind of a facetious statement considering they don't really exist. There's a reason that the HR Org is included in each layoff. A lot of it is just incompetence, but it's partly because they just bring in family and friends to work there. Basically they create positions because they know/related to someone who is "hurting for a job in this economy". Qualifications? Who needs 'em anyways!?! Just send out a jeans day email! That will shut them up.

That's actually the only thing I've ever received from the HR Department; a jean's day email every 4 months. It's pretty disconcerting that being able to wear jeans once every 120 days is considered the greatest reprieve they can offer to us.

HR - "The natives are growing restless. A mutiny is afoot. The sock hop at Connections didn't work since everyone that came is already married to a Cerner person anyways! What ever will we do!?!?.....I know....jeans day." "BRILLIANT!!! EXCELSIOR!"

My Outlook Inbox - "Oh. My. God.....a jeans day. I wish it was jeans day right now so I could go home and change into them because the excitement of being allowed to wear denim has caused me to mess my Cerner standard dress khakis."

People always complain about not getting to see their families because Cerner works them too hard. I'm not sure if I believe that statement considering about half of the company is either blood related, married, or at least sleeping with each other. I mean, just enjoy a cool mocha latte at Mr. Illig's own Cliff's Cafe that is, point proven, until recently run by Neal's daughter, a blood relative. Cerner wants you to be with your family, there's no doubt about that. They just don't like you marrying outside the company. People were almost shocked when I told them my significant other didn't also work at Cerner. They told me I'd have to get to a Beer Friday as fast as I could to at least find someone at Cerner to cheat on her with!

You know what's funny? They block this site specifically while you are on campus. It doesn't fall under any of the genre restrictions like sexual content or anything. They just block it specifically. I'm assuming Townsend (Vito) made that call.

Just as a side note, people make up their hours on their time sheets. It's actually pretty sad considering that's part of the equation during review period on who gets raises. It's atrocious what people record as 'work done'. People will log work hours when they open their laptop on Sunday to change their Twitter feed to "Transforming Healthcare per my direct report so that I can escalate the issue of the fire drill and create a good show by killing a snake. Better touch base with the other associates. Remember to bring your devices!"

Either way, I'm so happy that when someone asks me at the bar if I work for Cerner too I can say, "No. Never have."

Work there if you want to meet some of the most awful human beings and then get married to one of them though. Then you can go around telling people you work for Cerner and wait for them to say, "Oh yeah? That's a great place to work," and then just reply, "Yeah, that's what I hear."

Don't do this to yourself. This is a company full of middle 'managers' who ride of the back of their underlings - sometimes referred to as associates. Salary is ordinary, benefits are so complex that it's hard to figure if they are paying you correctly or not. If you are a thirty something attractive man with a wife and no life, this is the company for you.

I will be a high school intern with cerner this summer. The pay is excellent: over $16 an hour.. I was wondering how orientation is, and will I have to be working long hours?

I agree with most of the negative comments posted here about Cerner. While its a big company, when you read the posts you see that many of the former/current employees have similar complaints so don't discount those as sour grapes. As a sales professional, the lack of a coherent management team makes it nearly impossible to sell the product. Middle management, sales leaders, is a revolving door. There is a different supervisor, territory, and sales role almost every quarter. Maybe I've just hit a rough time at the company. As a commissioned salesman, the potential pay is great. As a practical matter, it seems shear luck whether you could actually sell the product and the time and effort necessary to close a multi-million dollar deal just doesn't seem worth the commission in the end. The competition in this field is fierce but Cerner doesn't seem too interested in wining and dining the clients but instead feels like the product is so great everyone would just want to buy it...it doesn't work that way in the real world.

Typical fringe benefits with some perks at the KC home office. But there is a "whip on the back" mentality by management. That is insulting. No real guidance or support, just "do better, sell more, make me look good."

As noted by most, the career potential is nill. It's just a matter of time before you get the boot as an excuse/cover for someone above you. And when they do, don't expect to be paid for commissions earned...there's always an excuse or some fine print to cheat you out of your commission. I know several guys that have been shown the door after closing a sale and Cerner would not pay the earned commission.

There are good people working at Cerner, just not those in managment. Sales support staff is helpful but there has been a high turnover there as well.

There's an e-mail on the web allegedly from Mr. Patterson to his managers. I don't know if its real or not, but it seems to be exactly what is happening today. Everybody is screaming and hollering about production and making things happen, but its all just a top-down CYA to avoid the boss's wrath...no real pride in the job or team spirit....

Will I continue to work for Cerner? Sure, I need the job. But would I leave if given the chance? Absolutely.

Pay: Cerner offers competitive salary compensation packages especially to newly hired graduates. I believe it is a good place for to start out your career especially to understand. However there is little scope of change in salary even if you perform exceedingly well and increments are actually insignificant when it comes to value for effort, results or work done by the employee.

Respect:
There is minimum respect for the management due to bossy work culture particularly which has been handed down from the beginning. Your boss is buzzing somewhere near and may seem like a pesky little fly. There is a chance that a person could be hired in your team who lacks the skills and knowledge but has some work experience. Chances are they may be getting more money and a higher designation for the same work which you had been doing for past 1-3 years. The Technical managers are always busy in their work and have very little time to address your issues. The business managers are crap. Much depends on the first impression which you make on them. There are very good people in the organization as well but they have elected to adopt the same work 'unethics' which they were handed down by their bosses

Job Security: None The CEO of Cerner is a HOG money making cheapskate and always consider survival of the company first before employee consideration even if they were working there for along time.

Benefits: Good medical compensation and other facilities. If you work overtime - you get food coupons which is a laugh




Work/Life Balance: If you wanna succeed at Cerner - there is only work in your life. Before of proving your ability initially to your managers and bosses since they are only going to overload you more. Also, compensation is not adequate. beware of losing your mental balance and burn out especially during the first 3 years.Also , Cerner has a pressure based negative rating performance system, which means no matter what the result you are always going to be rated badly.


Career Potential/Growth: fast growth is possible but at stake are your own mental and physical wellbeing, work burnout is common and fastest way to loose interest in life & that too for miniscule rises in salary. And you have to be an ass kisser as well as adept at keeping your boss happpy and getting yourselves out of trouble. Get ready to play the blame game!!


Location:
Good

Co-worker Competence:

Depends on your luck . I would say 80 % are good. 20 are useless.

Work Environment:The worse possible if you do not have a technical bent as well as individual and team working skills

I worked at Cerner from Jan 2005 to April 2009. I wanted to write here to let all of you know how much my life has improved since I left.

My story is like many others. I was hired as a fresh faced college grad, given a salary that sounded good to me at the time. For a year or so, things were ok.

Once the honeymoon period is over you see the dark side. Work is piled on you at about double what you can do. Your performance is evaluated in ways that will never be explained or rationalized.

The day-to-day culture at Cerner is very poor. No one wants to be there, they just don't have any options in this economy.

Everyone's Cerner career ends the same way. After a few years of slavery, Cerner has ground you down into a whimpering little nub. Finding yourself on the verge of a mental breakdown, facing the loss of family and friend relationships, with a stagnated career and a stagnated salary, you finally throw up your hands and leave.

But then you land someplace better. Someplace where you work normal human hours and make a lot more money. You have respect and opportunity for advancement. And you laugh that you ever put up with Cerner.

A good example is that I had a project scope expand significantly and the deadline was not extended to compensate. I found myself working 80-90 hour weeks for about 6 weeks straight. After I delivered the project on time, I was given a "needs improvement" rating. All predefined goals were met for the year, there were no quantifiable negatives my manager had to say at the review except "we think we can get more out of you". That was it, I was sending out resumes that very evening.

They pass you over for an advance, they blindside you with a negative rating, or major mistakes that aren't your fault start sounding like they were your fault. You have to be adept at avoiding blame, because Cerner is a blame-game culture.

I've met dozens of former Cerner slaves, and have yet to hear one say that they had a good experience. Run away. If you have to take a job there because of the economic climate, get out after a year or two. Don't get stuck.

Pay: I thought was at a really great level. I had just gotten a raise and after putting in a 75 hour week winning a client back - I was fired. Almost a year later they still have not told me why legally and no documentation received.
Respect: I thought it was great and believed in my leadership. Instead they took things that others complained about, but never found to be true. I worked two years to qualify and was hired. I was ready to give Cerner my all and did. I became sick and still put into 75 hours in a week. Instead of working with me when the diagnoses came in, they used it against me. Yet others they said, we can work with you. I think there were some age issues also. I found out that Cerner gets kick backs from Dinner's club so be careful if you get sick or have family issues and don't get your reports in. They didn't care the work I had done for them, saving an account. I was behind on my paper work and ill, Dinner's said they fire those that effect their kick backs. I can't begin to discribe what this has done to me mentally, emotionally and physically. I still am in shock as to what they did to me and then to scrape hearsay up to get rid of me. How can someone ethically do that to someone and still go home, be with their family and sleep at night? How can they justify that in their mind? It saddens me, I would have given my all to them and worked myself to death. I don't see any respect in that, especially to management. Even in our training, one of the instructors said that we need to be careful. The way he said that lead me to believe he must have experienced the same. I was told by HR too bad I didn't want to move to KCMO, I said I was never given the option. Oh...is what she said and wouldn't talk about it again. I received rewards, a large group of references from clients, so makes you wonder where the respect is.
Benefits: Pretty great. They could have offered some more, especially for the virtual.
Job Security: I thought was incredible till I was backsided loosing my job.
work/Life Balance: They spoke balance, but expected only Cerner. I saw those who had connections do almost nothing, even screw up, used the job to find new girls to bring back to hotel room nightly, fly to visit friends on Cerner tab. I din't see balance and while others over worked, it wasn't good enough. Their behavior was good. What was good for the goose was not good for the gander.
Career Potential/Growth: Now I'd have to say if you know someone is your best for career potential, growth, pay increase and respect. Pay back is a bitch, especially if you didn't do anything for it.
Location: Works great virtually and those in KCMO when you are respected and valued.
Co-worker competence: Awesome, but some of the younger IT don't have any social skills and misunderstandings are high. I am highly skilled in conflict management skills and nothing prepared me for the wall that came at me and verbally tried to destroy me.
Work Environment: Is ok when your skill set match what they tell you and send you into. Huge lack of communication. There is also an expectation for you to pretend your skills are more than what you can do for the client. They don't care and just send you out.

I went to work at Cerner as an outside consultant hired by Cerner to make sense of how they priced their products. As a consultant, paid and supervised by a non-Cerner entity, life was good, I even got paid overtime. From the point I hired on with Cerner full time everything changed. 60-70 hour work weeks, treated like a piece of meat, contantly changing expectations and metrics. NO Respect from management what so ever. Frankly, I would rather gnaw off my own face that work for their organization again. It has been 7 years since I left and I still shudder at the thought.

Parents, warn your children. Children, save your parents.

Pay: Not great! no matter how hard you work the pay raise is useless. (You will be asked to work longer hours most of the time - don't expect anything)
Respect: The Cerner application is useless, NHS staff at client sites will not treat you with respect.
Benefits: Healthcare and Pension contribution (standard)
Job Security: Looking at the current market Cerner Corporation is doing well however they are getting rid of staff cleverly
Work/ Life: (Mentioned earlier in pay)
Career Potential/ Growth: If you are a graduate then it is not worth joining (waste of time) - the graduate training is useless and does not help you in the job market, (it is not conducted professionally). Some companies outline "if you have passed the Cerner graduate programme it has no value to us". (If you are American then your career will progress)
Location: Is fine and centrally located (next to Paddington station) near all amenities
Co-Worker: You ask anyone within the company they dont know what they are doing
Work Environment: there are two buildings The Point and Sheldon Square, The Point is a quieter environment and offers more space and facilities however Sheldon Square is too cramped and does not offer all facilities, (The Point is used for clients).