Pros
Interesting science, pay/benefits, peers are enthusiastic/kind, good place to get experience and get out
Cons
Working at Terray has been a series of disappointments, not just for myself, but for many others who have decided to join the start-up company. Terray does its best to convince you that it’s a great place to work. It offers benefits that rival big tech companies, but don’t ask how much more those computer people are getting paid over people in the lab who are exposed to hazardous materials constantly and are doomed to a shorter lifespan. Not only that, the managers are PhDs with no industry experience. They got their position due to favoritism/nepotism, and are continuing that cycle by practicing nepotism in the direct working environment. Additionally, they haven’t necessarily figured out hiring yet, so they’ll do a lot of personality hiring but not their due-diligence on whether or not those people can do the job. The number of new lab people that can be observed coming and going in a year is a little scary. And it’s only made worse by these managers’ lack of leadership and soft skills. I guess the cat’s out of the bag there. With the managers being new, they haven’t figured out how to train people yet. God forbid you need more training than others. In fact, I’d say pack your bags cus you’ll be job hunting again right quick if you fall under that category. And if you’re not, don’t forget, there’s nepotism going on, but without managerial soft skills that means abuse has also crept into the workspace. You’ll probably be the brunt of abuse while you’re there, if you survive the initial sprint of when you show up. If you feel like complaining to HR, don’t worry. This company still hasn’t hired one. To help boil all that down, let’s look at it this way: - If you’ve got prior experience (industry, undergrad research, grad research), don’t worry, they don’t care. They’ve convinced themselves their technology is so new that no one will get it. - Because of that, their managers think they’re the god-voice when it comes to giving instructions and understanding the science. Who cares if you know about how proteins work? You didn’t work there before, so you don’t know anything. - They don’t wanna train, so obviously you can never learn how to analyze data on their new, novel technology that no one understands. - Don’t forget - because you can’t learn, you can’t grow professionally here. - And because of that, you guessed it, you’ll never get to use skills you learned outside to help you (or maybe…they’re the only reason you need a small amount of training…). - Because managers are the god-voice, it’s okay if THEY cut corners and lie in the documentation. But NOT YOU. If they took 40 minutes, it’s 30 minutes. But if YOU took 40 minutes? You’re a failure and need to be retrained. - Oh, and don’t forget. If you’re not doing exactly what the manager needs done but didn’t tell you about, it’s your fault. Because you didn’t ask them about it. Even though they found out 2 hours before you. And assigned you to a 4 hour long task while all of this was ongoing. - And, you guessed it, that means your role can be at the whim of your manager. Employee contract? Pfft. The verbage on how to move up is vague enough that they’ll try to convince you entry level people should be training (lol, good luck person who has been there for 2 weeks). - And once again, they STILL have not hired HR. So if you have complaints, don’t worry! It’s going nowhere! The other people will be nice to you. After all, it’s personality hire, so everyone will act pretty much like you. But keep in mind, you’re all probably equally unhappy together on the inside. Is this what you really want?
