Zymergen reviews

3.0

41% would recommend to a friend

(241 total reviews)
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Joshua Hoffman

24% approve of CEO

16% positive business outlook

Zymergen has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 241 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Zymergen 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

241 reviews
1.0
Jul 31, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

If I sat here for a while longer, I might be able to think of one.

Cons

-Please note the CEO suggested to the entire company that people should write positive reviews on glassdoor. That is why there is a recent trend in reviews that are more positive. For this reason, I do not believe that these recent positive ratings or reviews are actually reflective of the company or its culture. -Teams work as separate mini companies competing among themselves instead of together productively -General lack of transparency -A lot of the key scientific leaders left. In the wake of that, in many cases the incompetent scientist who have louder voices or acted more aggressive drowned out the competent ones and rose in position -Lots of layers of middle management who have no clue about what’s actually going on and useless leadership trying to prove their own value. -Many case of nepotism for projects, roles, and promotions by managers and directors that don’t have the scientific knowledge, background, or groundwork to be making such decisions. The result is ”scientists” without deep expertise and only amateur interests in specific subject matter being promoted to key decision making roles that they should not be in. A lot of scientist who are competent have noticed this trend and there is a swarm of employees upset about this right now.

1.0
Nov 3, 2016

this place needs some work

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The brightest minds, or so they say. Along with the brightest minds come some of the rudest minds to ever be seen.

Cons

It's a really cut throat environment. It feels like every day you are just trying to achieve the same thing with no increase in motivation.

1.0
Mar 4, 2018

Unsunstainable Work Culture

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

founders seem competent and are likely clueless to the toxic work place

Cons

toxic work environment "Do whatever you can at whatever cost" attitude Bloated middle-management is causing a slowdown in work pace. Management is untrained in actually... you know... managing. They are focused are delivering results, despite not knowing HOW to deliver results. I was hired as a senior associate but am doing entry-level work. I can't contribute to bigger projects because there is nobody else to actually execute on the things that HAVE to get done. The people that were hired a year or more ago have a revered position/opinions merely because they've actually managed to survive here. This attitude is detrimental to the company, though. Maybe the veterans were good at there job when we were smaller, but they don't know how to scale, manage, or keep their egos in check. Honestly, I want to love it here, but the egos and middle management make it impossible to work here. This place is hemorrhaging good talent.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 241 Reviews

Glassdoor has 255 Zymergen reviews submitted anonymously by Zymergen employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Zymergen is right for you.