Meet The Arkhams - FPGA Logic Design Engineer Arkham Technology Employee Review

1.0
6 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Honestly, the work is interesting enough when you're not thinking about who is getting fired next. All the free snacks and food are great too. The coworkers are great to interact with and friendly but you will quickly notice your coworkers come and go so its hard to build camaraderie with such a high turnover of a company.   - Free snacks* - Free lunch* - Coworkers* * Your experience may vary

Cons

This is where the emphasis of the review will be. There are many issues to be aware of and should definitely be considered before deciding to join the company. In short, this company fails to have long term vision. Many of the decisions made during my time there were very short-sighted and turned into what initially seemed like a fun non-toxic environment to the complete opposite. -There is high turnover and it almost seems like this company operates with this intention. One of the early red flags were the amount of employees that have been with the company for less than a year. Over half of the company it seemed like have only been with the company for less than a year and the other employees have been for much more years. The younger employees seem more prone to being let go but the company just operates by continuing to hire new employees and the cycle continues. -No work from home flexibility. Does not matter how far your commute is, you are expected to come into the office everyday and attend a daily meeting at 8:30am. Of course, this is known beforehand but if you had any hope that there is a leeway of flexibility, the answer is no. Interestingly enough, it does seem like certain employees are able to work remotely. How does that work? Not quite sure, but you are not allowed to work remotely. - You will be monitored very closely whether you are aware of it or not. There are cameras within the office that are almost certainly being used to monitor your activity. Hence why work from home is not allowed. This company needs to make sure you are spending your time working. In phone use is not allowed so you will end up staring at your computer wondering why you accepted the job. -There is a daily meeting every morning at 8:30am where you go over what you will work on for the day. It's not uncommon, but when you mix it with the micromanaging style of leadership, it becomes tiresome. Every Friday you also have to mention an accomplishment but really it feels like what have you done this week for the company. - The benefits are not great. You would think that with such a negative work environment that at least pay and benefits are worth it. Unfortunately that is also not the case. 401k matching is not competitive and health insurance is ok. Only 15 total days off PTO in the year and since you have no work from home flexibility, you better hope you don't get sick otherwise you will quickly find yourself with no vacation time. 20 total days is the industry standard. - Pay was standard in my experience, but definitely not the usual case. If you are a young employee starting your first job, you will be low balled and not offered competitive pay for Irvine. Bonuses used to be a thing but have seemed to have gone away by the time I left. - Lastly, you will be talked down too. There is a lack of respect between leadership and the employees. Leadership always knows best and will not fail to tell you so. If it not done the way they want it, it is the wrong way. Overall I would highly recommend to stay away. Despite how great some of your coworkers will be (and they are), unless you are desperate for a foot in the door, stay away. The current rating is very deceiving because we were recommended to leave positive reviews to attract new talent. Some of the previous positive reviews were actually employees that were fired but are unable to change their reviews. Time has past since I left but even after extended reflection, this was definitely the worst place I have ever worked at.

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Arkham Technology Response
1y
Thank you for your detailed review. It seems like many of the issues were already spoken about before you took the position... We feel very honored and privileged to do the kind of work that we do for the government, and that requires us to complete most of the tasks in person, on site, as discussed during the interview. We also discussed in the interview that we were growing to twice our size in the last year, which is exciting, but also means that half of your co-workers would be new to the company. I think there was an incorrect assumption being made about the high turnover. Our turnover rate has always been very low. Due to the nature of our business, we do have cameras at strategic locations as do almost every other defense contracting company. They aren't used as a way to monitor anyone's work progress. I'm sorry that that was a concern we were not aware of. Each team goes over their progress, which is the main way we know that progress is being made. Respect is one of our core values, and it is rare to hear anyone being spoken down to. In fact, we actually feel so strongly about this that there were a few important but disrespectful customers we almost terminated due to their harsh interaction with our employees. Regardless, I'm sorry to hear that that was your experience at Arkham. We will incorporate the feedback and be more aware of instances where this may be happening inside of our company. We also offer 3 weeks PTO for those who have been here 5 years or less, but also have one week paid time off during Christmas and New Year's. We do ask for positive reviews of the company. Most of us are engineers and not on social media, so if we don't ask, we will have 0 reviews. We do ask for feedback regularly about our company internally as well. We understand that our company culture may not have been a great fit for you. We hope you were able to find the right kind of company culture in your present employment.

Explore other reviews about Arkham Technology

5.0
17 Dec 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I enjoyed working on different and exciting projects and my Manager is pretty great to work for. The people here are supportive and with great collaboration. I am fortunate to learn from the other engineers here that are so good at teaching and helping me become a better engineer.

Cons

I don't have anything negative to say at this time.

4.0
8 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I value the autonomy and empowerment to do my job without micromanaging; I think they value their employees and take care of us. The company is focused on success and growth.

Cons

I do believe that there is room for improvement in compensation and benefits compared to our competitors. I also think that there is some room for improvement in training and direction.

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