production associate

application developer

process engineer

material handler

project manager

Autoliv

Typical day on the production floor was fast-paced. If you're one of the lucky few to be on a line that doesn't work on weekends then great, but most lines work at least one weekend a month and my line unfortunately worked every weekend at least a day. They don't care that you're tired or that you have a life because it is mandatory overtime. Office employees get every Friday off while some lines (like mine) work up to 28 days in a row. If you have a problem it gets tossed around, everyone blaming everyone else. They encourage kaizens, 8D's and new ideas but they don't follow up and then the line gets in trouble for not meeting monthly goals. It is always the production associates fault, never management, never the engineers. If something needed fixing it got fixed in two months and we the production associates had to deal with it working with flawed machines 8 hours a day for weeks or even months. AMG's and AMC's don't care about their AMT's or production workers. Some don't even know how a line runs, they go to the production floor and have no idea what a machine does or what the process consists of. Temp agency employees have no work ethic or work experience and we were expected to cater to them. We could not tell them to hurry not even a little. I didn't want to be working another weekend but all we could do is stand and wait for them. If they complain then we got in trouble because we have to be nice to them even though work does not get done. Work culture is changing due to this new rule, lots of teenagers, lots of drama, lots of bullying and unprofessionalism. The conversations that take place on some lines are unprofessional and inappropriate but you don't want to be the snitch so you suck it up. It was a toxic and hostile environment that higher management has either no idea about or doesn't care. Last couple of years I was there MANY good long term employees left for better jobs. Everyone is replaceable and they'll tell you. They have a high turnover rate and the people working on the lines are the ones that have to make up for it. They need a better interview process and they need to raise their new-hire standards so that they only hire people with better qualifications and work ethic. Money was great but there's very poor work-life balance and I didn't have a life the last three years I was there when we got a lot of business due to the increase in work and new lines. Due to the lack of care from management, lack of professionalism on the lines and the toxic environment I left for the sake of my sanity.

I retired in 2009 from Autoliv Electronics located in Goleta, California.
I was one of the engineers accepted to be transferred to California for the  development and Management of all the new suppliers for startup of the Night Vision Camera program.

I was with them in the infinite stages of developing into an accepted
supplier for BMW in Europe. I held the position of Supplier Development Engineer/Quality Management. During this time I had the opportunity to be involved in training and developing all new suppliers for this division of Autoliv. Flir in Santa Barbara was their supplier and partner with Autoliv.  Flir was the company that made the vacuum package for this new state of the art night vision camera.

Flir was also contracted with the USA Air Force in supplying our military with  night vision cameras. This night vision camera would seek out any missile bases. So the Air Force could shoot them down. Flir was also one of our suppliers I trained in becoming an approved vendor for the Auto Industry.

The management is and were very good to work for. This management team respected their production associates and provided them with all the tools needed to build and test the units during production.

Autoliv was accepted as a production manufacture in 2005 for BMW.
Their production keep increasing  year after year. In 2007, I believe,  Autoliv were in the stages of completing  their design of night vision 2. They were in the middle of the design and development stage of night vision 3 when the recession hit and this company was forced into laying off all of their field supplier quality engineers world wide.  

 I have no complaints with this company.The only draw back was the family insurance program they had for their employees. It needed to be improved. I can honestly  say, Autoliv has improved this benefit since I was forced into retiring. I can say this because I know this company very will.

I loved working for this company, and if things were to change for the better, I would be very happy to be accepted back into they family.

Sincerely, Joseph Runyon Retired SQE 2009

I give this company 5 STARS +
Miss them all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A typical day involves showing up to your assigned line, sometimes having what you need to run, a culture that means nobody cares about what they're doing because the only people who can cope with the place are people who stop caring. Middle management is overwhelmed and not given the tools they need, upper management stays upstairs and nothing gets communicated to them via the middle management. No organization, no communication, blatant favoritism in management. Excessive overtime where you're working 20 days in a row, even though they like to pretend they have a "14 days on, 1 day off" policy during those times, which is already laughably cruel. Coworkers who don't care about delivering quality despite threats never followed through from management to improve it, blame laid at the feet of the "trainers" that are told have the responsibility of line leads but zero power, who are screwed over by poorly performing workers who management does nothing about, who you are meant to just magically motivate into doing a better job (or just do their job for them, so management doesn't have to suffer through a difficult conversation, that's your job!) 
Their insurance is very good at least, and reasonably priced. They give quarterly bonuses, and since there's a nonstop requirement of overtime, you'll be making good money, but because the only people who sign up for that deal are dumb kids who don't know that it isn't sustainable, you'll be working with immature 18 year olds who you'll be making it up for. would highly recommend this job if you want to show up every day and spend half the day in the bathroom, because as long as you aren't tardy or a trainer, they really don't seem to ever fire anybody! 
it's well paying for the area but save yourself the stress and carpel tunnel and don't invest your time here. you'll be so exhausted the job search will be so hard. and they have the brass you-know-whats to act like they care about employee mental health. 

A terrible place to work.

Typical day is 8.5 hours. They want you clocked in 15 minutes before the hour. You'll do average production work (not really hard) while getting micromanaged by supervision. Don't even think about getting a weekend off, be grateful you get Sundays off. I logged 240+ hours of OT last year.

The most important thing that I've learned while working here is to keep to myself, as most of the workers view the plant as a second high school.

Management is anything but, as they are more concerned with cutting man-hours per unit than anything else (like safety, traceability, or quality). Family and friends will see preferential treatment over qualified personnel in this "good 'ol boy" hierarchy. All they care about is numbers, whether incoming (inventory) or outgoing (shippable parts). Anyone that doesn't have a desk job here is treated as an expense that the company needs to trim.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with the constant double standards, which are not limited to:
- Multiple sexual harassment instances hushed up, while maintaining a "Zero Tolerance Policy".
- Training personnel to push out parts, regardless of quality and safety... while having them sign documentation of the opposite.
- "Don't shake the vending machines, you will be terminated immediately if caught" direct quote during orientation. Followed up by multiple witnesses reporting the HR manager doing so.

The most enjoyable parts of the job are building parts that (if built correctly) save lives, and clocking out for the day.

I worked at Autoliv for many years, and for a long time it was an excellent place to build a career. I had the freedom to innovate, lead improvement projects, and take pride in the impact of my work. I felt recognized, trusted, and genuinely enjoyed what I did.
Over the last few years, however, the culture and priorities shifted dramatically. The company’s “Less with Less” downsizing approach and increased outsourcing have left many employees unable to do more than maintain the status quo. The lack of resources makes it nearly impossible to deliver the “game changing” improvements leadership continues to demand.
Compensation practices have also become increasingly inconsistent and discouraging. New hires often start at higher wages than long tenured employees, and individuals with decades of experience can earn less than colleagues with far less tenure. Despite significant cost of living increases, management refuse to even acknowledge the problem, let alone actually try to help ease the burden.
Autoliv once valued its employees. Today, it feels the opposite. The shift toward cost cutting, outsourcing, and inconsistent compensation has drained the motivation and pride that used to define the workplace. There are still talented people doing their best every day, but without meaningful investment in the workforce, it’s hard to see how the company can regain the culture that made it such a great place to work.


The one good thing I can say about working at Autoliv for 3+ years is that the pay is enough to convince you to continue working there, even though the rest of it makes you wish you could afford to quit.

Your typical work day will consist of repeating the same action 2000+ times a day. It is mindless and you are allowed to listen to music but you will go home each day with pain in your feet, wrists and back that has resulted in almost every one of my co-working having to go to surgery to repair after working for a year or more.

The management feels detached and when you do talk to them it is almost as if they work for an entirely different company due to their lack of understanding of what you do on a daily basis on the production floor. They also take every opportunity to make the job harder with every decision they make.

The culture at Autoliv is depressing, it is very cliche oriented as every production cell is their own team and you rarely have time or an opportunity to meet the other workers unless you make time to do so on your lunch or 15 minute break. The management has a very blame centered way to dealing with issues and does not give the cell managers (AMT's) the correct training to have them effectively lead others. You often feel criticized for not knowing things that you have not been taught.

The most enjoyable part of the job is going home each day and maybe having a weekend off once every 3 weeks to relax.

Autoliv used to be a good place to work. Over the years they have slowly stopped doing things for their employees to show appreciation.  Also recently the management, business culture group (or APS department), and H.R. seem to have stopped working together.  They have recently forced the associates on the floor to work in a manner that is already showing increased safety issues causing repetitive motion injuries.  With a possible fire safety hazard because of the way they have confined the workspaces.
     H.R. continuously make up new rules as they go- which they then refuse to enforce. Then Instead of working on fixing serious issues, mainly with personnel, management is more worried about if a portion of the equipment gets a little dusty.
     Another issue I believe is a big problem.   Management and the business culture group (APS) require that everyone on the floor follows the business design policies (APS) or autoliv production system. Yet no other department seems to have to do this. It's the old "do as I say, not as I do" mentality. 
     They are also starting to reduce the salary employees right now.  They are getting rid of the experienced managers and all of the newer ones either can't, or don't want to do their jobs. I have worked there for 10 years and I'm regretting my life decisions now.

Typical workday we had to be on site and clocked in by 5:30 AM. Didn’t really get to learn much from any of the Autoliv employees but I was lucky enough to get paired with a contractor that was on site that I was able to learn a lot from and I still carrying you to carry that relationship to this day. My boss was absolutely horrible. Most of the time he wouldn’t even speak to me, and apparently he was an electrical instructor at a school, which was very, very surprising. As far as the work culture. I’ve ever experienced in my life there’s definitely favorites. I just happen to be the youngest on the crew. Maybe that played a huge role not really sure they had a very high turnover rate. Through multiple people just in the two years that I was there but yes, the culture was absolutely horrible and like I said, my boss wasn’t even a boss. He was just a stranger to me. But from hearing other employees comments, apparently Autoliv is known to have a horrible work culture. I’ve never experienced workplace violence until I worked out at Autoliv in promontory and of course, since he was one of the favorites, nothing happened. I would definitely not recommend anybody working out there. The only upside is is that the pay is pretty decent. Other than that there’s nothing really to look forward to.

This is mostly my personal opinion, and how it wasn't a good job - for me. 

Being on a production line, on the same 7 second cycle for 8 hours in a gigantic warehouse full of machines was extremely depressing for me. I dreaded going to work. It made me feel quite useless.

I had an understanding and supportive management, all except for my trainer during my training, who was very impatient at times, and quite dirty-minded. He knew it too, and we learned to get along still, although I would have much preferred not to have dealt with it.

I learned that working on the production floor in a production line depressed me, although I learned to maintain quite a positive attitude throughout all of my dislike there, and I tried my best to make the best out of my time there. I definitely learned that in order to get through sometimes, you have to make the hard decision to be happy when things are tough, to work just as hard and enthusiastically, and give it your all. I also learned to further value great teamwork.

It wasn't for me. Some people don't mind it, but I felt that most of my skills weren't being used, and my skills and talents and using them is very important to me. I didn't feel like I had much to offer.

Not going there again unless I ultimately HAVE to.

Typical day for me would be handing out work assignments, managing work flow of all employees in the warehouse, and assisting the head warehouse manager. 

I started as a fork lift driver and worked my way up to manager in less than 2 years. My co-workers were great, hard working, good attendance, and positive attitude.

As a former manager I'm a little biased but I think management was great. 

The hardest part of the job are definitely the hours. Mandatory 12 to 16 hour shifts sometimes 6 days a week. Basically you work until everything that needs to be shipped out that day is done. Not uncommon to work 55 to 60 hours a week. This warehouse is all forklift so it is very very fast paced. Sometimes the pace can be brutal with very short 15 minute breaks once every 4 hours and a short 30 minute lunch.

Most enjoyable part of the job was the paycheck. After working 50 to 60 hours a week sometimes 6 days a week you had no personal life outside work.

Unfortunately Autoliv stopped all North American distribution and closed all the distributions. It's all overseas distribution now to the US.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Production associate 4 salaries reported	$22.81 per hour
Application developer 3 salaries reported	$80,950 per year
Process engineer 3 salaries reported	$77,667 per year
Material handler 8 salaries reported	$20.91 per hour
Project manager 3 salaries reported	$110,000 per year

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