Pros
See the full review below
Cons
Artemys talks a good game. As a cutting edge cultured meat company, they’re doing incredible science and the management vision is to have a diverse and open environment full of opportunity. However, after working here, I found the environment and management very challenging. Diversity: At the forefront of their culture, Artemys claims that DEI is of the utmost importance. However, in their execution, it seems diversity goes only as far as skin color and country of origin. Beyond that, they seem to laud advanced degrees over experience and enforce DEI training on the staff while the upper management continues to hold their biases in hiring and organizational practices. In addition, they tout a continuous career ladder that encourages growth, but it is simply an old formula with no innovation around job descriptions beyond those defined by degree level. Their policies appeal to the woke but in practice they read like business as usual with a dash of tokenism. Openness and transparency: While the management claims they are open and transparent, in practice they seem vindictive and lack self reflection. Artemys has a bit of a retention problem. Rather than looking inward and evaluating why these issues arise, the management seems to blame the other party and continue with the status quo. Any feedback given seems to warrant changes in attitude from management as not toeing the company line. Team: Though Artemys wants to build a team (which, to the credit of the team itself, is filled with talented people), they fail to nurture that team. Performance reviews are overemphasized, yet not everyone will get promoted every year and favoritism is rampant, leading to low morale. Instead of enabling team members to fulfill their potential, it seems like the objective is preserving the hierarchy. In addition, when team members understandably become frustrated and relay their concerns, it seems once again that despite claims of openness and transparency, management does not appear interested in addressing these issues. I firmly believe that a startup has the flexibility to make its own rules and I am disappointed that Artemys is replicating old systems which don’t support minorities. The one shining light in all this is the science that is being done here. It is an interesting challenge that could one day have an impact on the world.