A schizophrenic blend of amazing and terrible
Pros
Pros - Got to work on many projects, various strains, pathways, proteins and tools - learned a ton: gene edit tools, NGS analysis, automation, LIMS, flow cytometry - extremely well funded, which means projects are *usually* resourced well - pre-IPO the equity package was pretty good - Work with some of the smartest people you'll ever meet, but few large egos - Looks bomb on a resume, easy to get interviews/hired afterwards - Most people truly believe in the mission and the company - While difficult, it is possible to propose new ideas, RD projects and get them funded, even as a junior scientist - comp'd dinner if working late, sometimes lunches too - Mission is "save-the-world-y" if that tickles your fancy. Some projects evenhelp people, like Synlogic. - Foundry is bomb, great to get DNA sequencing 2-3 x per week w/ TAT of <48h. - Pre-covid the social life was great, friendly people, lots of parties etc
Cons
Many of these problems got worse during 2020 covid pandemic and leading up to IPO. To average 3+ years of work is difficult because sometimes it was amazing and sometimes I wanted to throw myself out the 8th floor windows. -Forget a work-life balance, this job is now what you live for. -Pay was low, esp for strain engineers. Balanced by equity so might be different now -Mediocre onboarding. Little training. Often “the way” to learn a new protocol is doing it on the fly on valuable customer samples. Pushes to improve training get shot down. -Junior scientists, esp w/o PhD….good luck. Hard to find mentorship. Not that people don’t want to but they don’t have time. Many left 50K+ of equity on the table to go to grad school. Getting promoted to OE is a long and difficult journey. -The dumbest performance review system I’ve seen. -Many might be turned off by the DIE and social justice initiatives. Culture can be very political and it’ll be tough if you don’t share those beliefs. Some “out-of-the-closet” Conservatives claim they were treated very poorly, some fired or quit. -No moving bonus, visa/customs is a nightmare for internationals. -Some projects feel like a CRO work. Other projects are done for the revenue instead of feasibility. General success rate on projects is still low unfortunately. -Reshma. She can be…difficult. -Very obvious and fundamental RD work to improve Foundry or technology is continuously pushed off, much is done “just in time” or a process is barely functional -HR is not there for you, it’s there for the company -Circumstantial evidence of firings/layoffs done as retribution, especially people that criticized certain things like circular revenue, politics. -If you do get fired, it will most likely be 2 weeks severance, immediate lockout from email and slack, and they will not sign the form from Dep Unemployment Assistance. Nobody who got laid off pre-IPO has gotten any unemployment benefits. DUA incompetent or backed up from covid, but process made even longer because HR didn’t have sh-t together. -Can feel kinda..culty? Startups do need some of that unshakable optimism, but not at the expense of addressing and solving real problems. -Teams change with projects, so it can be hard to establish relationships, constantly going through “new team phase”. It’s hard to summarize everything succinctly. When I joined in 2018, Ginkgo was a startup and felt like one. Now, for better or worse, it’s a corporation. Many will tell you, even now, there are many many worse biotech companies you can work at. Also, many of the issues I pointed out are specific to the Organism Engineering department, may be different in Foundry teams or Software. Ginkgo is well funded, has excellent people, great projects and I earned a lot of equity. If you want to risk the Cons I mentioned or think it won’t apply, I think you should go for it. But you know, keep your resume current and always be interviewing. Good luck.
