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Ginkgo BioWorks

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Ginkgo BioWorks reviews

3.0

28% would recommend to a friend

(189 total reviews)

Jason Kelly

30% approve of CEO

12% positive business outlook

Ginkgo BioWorks has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 189 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Ginkgo BioWorks employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

189 reviews
5.0
Apr 19, 2018

Ambitious company, awesome culture

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I have worked at Ginkgo for a little over two years, no regrets. Opportunities are abundant for those with a strong work ethic looking to challenge themselves. I think we've done an awesome job on hiring and the group only seems to be getting better. Career development is clearly important to the company and it is pretty open about improving on this. Speaking of open, it's really refreshing to be at a company that trusts its employees. I hope we can keep this.

Cons

Structure is lacking, but I would take the current over heavy structure that slows change any day. It's been said before, but the learning curve is very steep. They're also trying to improve this with more emphasis on training, buddies and documentation. Ginkgo isn't for the faint of heart. It helps to be strongly invested and accepting of change. But a positive attitude and passion of self improvement will take you a long ways here. Compensation gets mentioned and it feels pretty average to me compared to similar companies. I think those that are poor negotiators will do better here and those that are used to pushing for more will be a little disappointed in the return.

4.0
Jun 25, 2017

Interesting company, with some caveats

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Inspirational mission, we're trying to make biology easier to engineer. -Extremely meritocratic culture in meetings and decision-making -Rapidly expanding into new industries -Smart, interesting coworkers -"Management" (if such a thing can be said to exist) is very transparent about decision-making and business direction -Vacation and work hours are flexible. Nobody has to worry about burning a vacation day for comcast or a sick kid.

Cons

-Handful of phd hires from academia complained about being lowballed on compensation, so try to have another offer in hand to negotiate more effectively. -Tries to hire "rock stars" for mundane roles, but not all padawan/intern positions have real career potential. Ginkgo has spent time thinking critically about padawan career trajectories, and has more or less decided that we are okay with that moving forward (at least for some departments).

1.0
Sep 25, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The location, ability to network with external companies, Gingko being a platform company allows you to learn about of a lot of other technology outside of your sector

Cons

The company has unrealistic goals with inflated sales projections. Many of the technical capabilities Ginkgo claims to have for genetic medicines don’t actually work (there is a lack of validation) and sales goals are beyond unrealistic. Post layoffs, Ginkgo consolidated 3-4 people’s roles into one and overworked their employees without appropriate compensation. Many technical people lack expertise. There is no management training and management and leadership is horrifying (including the CFO). Being in industry 20 years and worked at other major biotech and tech companies, Ginkgo has the most toxic work culture I have ever come across. There is no professional development and employees lack the ability to contribute to decision making, even director level employees.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 189 Reviews

Glassdoor has 242 Ginkgo BioWorks reviews submitted anonymously by Ginkgo BioWorks employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Ginkgo BioWorks is right for you.