Pros
I worked at Discovery Genomics for close to a year and had a very positive experience. First off, take the negative reviews with a BIG grain of salt. All reviews are somewhat biased, but some are just trying to damage a company's reputation or troll them. I've seen a couple underperformers with poor attitudes get fired and write terrible reviews that include out-of-touch perspectives and a few flat out lies. For instance, DG never had any sales employees until October 2020 so references in that area are simply not true.
I was given opportunities to grow professionally lightyears beyond what many other companies in the industry offer. The company expanded from sequencing and building data to performing diagnostic Covid-19 testing. This presented obvious challenges, but the team faced them head-on and we ended up with a system that everyone was proud of. DG is still young which means there are tons of exciting possibilities and flexibility that startups enjoy. At the same time, everyone from entry level to upper management is pushing to deliver at the level of a Fortune 500 so its a good sign about the direction their heading.
People actually care about others and employees are treated well. As an example, employees get covid testing every week and people working with covid samples get tested every day. Completely paid for by the company to make sure people stay safe.
If you care about your work and put in the effort to contribute, you will be rewarded and given more opportunities to grow.
Pros:
- Ability to grow professionally with the company and pick up way more skills than you would elsewhere
- Good pay and benefits
- Awesome people who actually care about their colleagues
- Interesting technology and scientific challenges
- Ability to see progress quickly and have a voice
- Constantly improving culture that values good people and quickly removes the "bad apples"
I hope to work there again in the future.
Cons
I'm giving a very honest review and I think a lot of the cons for people leaving depend on how they left (bad terms or good terms). Regardless of the circumstance, I like to give myself some time before writing a review to make sure its not too biased (with good or bad). So, after reflection here are the cons:
- Work life balance was really tough but has been improving. Way better at the time I'm writing this, but it still could use some help. There are a lot of smart people doing really amazing things at DG, but the company has few people in certain departments which puts more work load on the existing team. Getting more staff with the right skillsets would alleviate a lot.
- People who are self-starters and work hard can really thrive, but it would be nice if there were more internal training programs available for the people who need it.
- DG is growing really quickly so physical space at the building is limited. It will be much better when the company expands.