Pros
Hello- I'm the CEO of Ionpath. I thought it might be useful to provide my take on the culture at Ionpath. At Ionpath, we’re developing and commercializing technology at the interface of several different fields including secondary ion mass spectrometry, pathology and image analysis. The problems we face are generally new and complicated and the timelines are short. The interdisciplinary nature of our problems has bred a culture of collaboration that I think is one of the best things about working here. We all sit in one big room- engineers sit with sales and marketing, operations shares desks with R&D, our pathologist works closely with our particle physicists- you get the idea. Individual teams generally have people with diverse backgrounds as well. Our software team, for instance, counts former electrical engineers, cancer researchers and an x-ray physicist amongst its ranks.
I’ve noticed that the people who are most effective at Ionpath share a few traits in common. Firstly, they are humble, or rather they have the self-confidence to look stupid, ask dumb questions and admit that they don’t know exactly what they’re doing, usually because no one has done it before. Secondly, they are collaborative and excel at bringing in people from several different areas, even from outside the organization, to help solve problems. Lastly, they have respect for those with other skillsets, no matter whether they’re on the technical team or the commercial team, whether they’re a 20yr veteran or if this is their first job. Conversely, people who are “turf-y” and who can’t look outside traditional departmental boundaries usually fail here- whenever I hear someone say “Well, you know how engineers are…” or “But he’s just a marketing guy” I know that it’s probably not a good fit.
It’s the plain truth that the work here is hard and sometimes quite stressful, but we confront challenges as a team and for me, there’s a tremendous amount of joy in that. I feel lucky to come into the office everyday and work with some of the smartest, most dedicated and thoughtful people I’ve ever met and feel honored that they continue to work with me.
Cons
Please see the pros above!