Pros
I met a lot of dynamic, intelligent, and positive people at this company - many of whom put together some amazing products and were driven by the important company mission. That was very inspiring, but most of them got treated very poorly by management.
Cons
Where to start? -Company has been around for 10+ years, yet still acts like a start up in the worst ways (long hours, low compensation, not as much expertise due to everyone being hired directly out of college, horrible paper trail and tons of inefficiency, siloed information, poor financial management) -Directors are incredibly rude and will decide if they don't like you from Day 1. Surveillance style - certain directors get upset if you have a doctors appointment or anything that could delay your work. They will literally watch you and make sure you don't leave any earlier to exercise some kind of power trip. -Everything was due yesterday, until they leave you in the dark about your product timeline, leaving you with no clear direction and always receiving the blame -Quality feedback is very rare - no performance reviews except for maybe one that occurs at the end of the year, no bonuses. during tastings, directors will just say "your product is bad", and not give you any direction to help fix it. They barely even give detailed critiques for you to go off of. -Relying on investor's income - the new lab space is not meant for lab work, it's meant to look nice so investors will walk by and give us more money. The ovens are smaller, there's not even a dish room, which many of us rely on for keeping a clean and functional lab space. A company cannot rely on investors forever. -CEO is obsessed with being a celebrity and not creating a functional product or company - always wants to rub elbows with Lakers players and other celebrities, surrounded by Yes Men and complained about not receiving a bonus in 2020 when many of us were struggling. -People with Masters degrees in relevant fields being paid an hourly wage that is barely more than minimum wage -People with Ph.D's not able to utilize their research and getting pigeonholed into a formulation position where they are only batching ingredients and doing menial work -High turnover (~50% of people) -No concern for food safety or overall workflow organization -Everything is incredibly siloed - once your product is approved, you will never see it again, nor will you be told what happens to it. A lot of essential information is siloed and will leave you confused about your project timeline and certain characteristics like costs, how commercialization will scale something up, marketing perspective, etc. -No congratulations or perks for completing a difficult project - I saw some really amazing projects get released and there wasn't even a "Thank you" from leadership for the people who actually put the tireless work in to completing it -Not a single member of upper management has worked in a food company, so they will set up impossible timelines that will not work for the scientific innovation they desire, and then blame you for not getting it done faster AND better. There's little to no understanding or care to understand the real time it takes for a brand new food product to get made, commercialized, and sent to retailers. -If you are being mistreated and report something to HR, you're toast. -This is not a place to practice positive negotiation skills, you must bow to the whim of the directors and do everything they ask, even if it seems unfeasible. And if you can't deliver it, then that's your problem. At this point I would not work here if you are applying right now. There are no signs of the internal issues changing anytime soon, and I suspect they will only get worse from here.