I'll be burning bridges with this but I don't care. Given the current climate I want to warn potential future employees (particularly POC) about this company. I know the company reads this so I also hopes this sparks some introspection and real action.
1. To be clear upfront, I was treated well by everyone and never experienced any overt racism at all. But it's these invisible forms of bias that are the most detrimental and that need to be called out. My grand-boss would proudly proclaim that she knows she has a bias for people who look like her (white women) and that attitude seemed to permeate throughout the department at least via actions. I was paid less than my white predecessor (my bonus was literally half that of everyone else's at my level), but most importantly white people just seemed to have more opportunities. Mediocre/average performing white people got promotions, mentorship and stretch assignments while I had to be 3x better and invent these fantastic new dashboards and reports that would change the world for only table scraps of recognition. I joined the company at the same time as a white woman & we were at the same level. Within 9 months, she was promoted to be my manager even though she didn't have the experience (she was a former property manager who had to be taught pivot tables) and I was solely responsible for producing a lot of new dashboards and reporting that received a lot of public recognition. When I questioned this decision, she relayed that to the former CHRO who became sort of hostile/frosty towards me. How dare I question why an unqualified white person got a promotion ahead of me! When I asked my new unqualified manager how to be promoted she said I needed to innovate and create reports/dashboards that people didn't even know they needed. This was not the same criteria they used to promote her! To this day, I can't think of a single piece of impactful work she did besides helping set up for parties and pretending to be super busy. As another example, a white woman in my department got a promotion after being on leave for half of the year and she was not innovative at all. She was highly competent but didn't bring anything new to the table. In fact, her team rolled out more new and innovative programs while she was out than it did with her there! These people I'm referring to were lovely people but there were clearly double standards.
2. I'd say the organization is very chaotic and there's no stability. They restructure VERY frequently. Leadership wants to do everything very quickly so there's pressure to work fast at the sake of quality and without any consideration as to how it'll impact the employees doing the work. What makes this particularly frustrating is that you'll work long hours to complete these urgent tasks only to not have the work used. Medidata needs stronger leadership that's more strategic.
3. This is the most callous company I've ever worked for. In my specific department people are moved into roles without their input or any consideration if that's what the employee truly wants. You're simply pieces on their chess board that they control. You're not a real human being with your own career aspirations. One day you may be doing a job you truly love and the next you may be moved to a new manager who's awful or they may move you back to a role you previously held for business needs.
I don't regret my time here but definitely would never ever consider returning here. I also wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this place if you're already in a stable, fulfilling job or if you have better options
