Pros
What interested me in Zymergen (beyond the vision) was the company's culture. I had worked with them as a vendor and was always excited when an opportunity to work with them came up (they were always engaged customers, taking notes and asking questions). Now that I work there, it's better than expected. People are collaborative, they trust each other, they respect each other's time and effort, they're honest about what they don't know or what they need help with. People make mistakes and disagree but we've always been able to bounce back and not let that negatively impact the work we're doing or the relationships. Thus far, I've seen few exceptions to this. The hours and workload are relatively flexible - there may be cases where grinding work through is necessary but that's not a standard day in any of the departments I've worked with. When that's happening people are vocal about it and work to find ways to make the workload sustainable.
Cons
- Catered food is only Mon, Wed, Fri (happy hour), the kitchen is stocked though - Not a lot of structure from the organization, though that's currently being built, so onboarding, training, etc.. are department led. You'll have to figure some things out on your own. - Departments are relatively flat so there isn't much hierarchy (I prefer this), but it makes "career advancement" a little difficult to navigate