Where Careers Come to Die - Anonymous employee XPRIZE Employee Review

Where to start? How about advancement and pay. If you join the foundation to grow and advance a career path, you're making a terrible mistake. Of the 3-4 years I worked there, I only saw two or three promotions. However, I did see them hire and fire upwards of 40 people from outside sources. Talk about high turn over. If you don't meet management's expectations within 6 months, you're gone. As for pay? It's pretty meager compared to elsewhere I've worked. Unfortunately, it's been a down economy, so this was all I could get at the time, and it was even tough finding another position to jump ship to. Hang in there ex-coworkers! It can get better (once you leave)! Structurally, this business is extremely top heavy, and the furthest thing from efficient I've seen. Ironic considering their goals. They pay their prize development team upwards of $1 million a year to do something that the public has shown a complete willingness to do for free/significantly less. Doesn't anyone remember "What's your crazy green idea?" Oh yeah, probably not since nobody from that time actually still works there. On top of all that, almost half of the prize development team is only in the office 3-4 times a year. And those are the people making $100K a year? Not good for morale. I won't even go into the fact that the top two hold up almost all of the projects and work to be done because of constant revisions and assigning new tasks. Seems to be pretty well documented, and yes, it's 100% true. Wonder why not a single sponsor has re-upped a contract, or sponsored another prize? We're awful to do business with, and probably have a negative ROI for them. We should be an asset, and have companies fighting to collaborate with us. Instead, we're begging them to let us associate with them. So sad I wasted so much time there. I could have been a VP by now, or at least a Senior Director, had I spent my last few years elsewhere.