Pretty Exterior, Broken Underneath - Corporate Office Staff - Don't Want to BE Too Specific ICON Employee Review

2.0
30 June 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When you tell your friends and family where you work, they will inevitably say "oh wow that's so cool, yeah I heard about that company on tv somewhere!".; the company's PR team is earning every penny it's being paid. ICON looks like a really cool company doing great things and doing it well, from the outside. I had a lot of fun doing lots of different things during my time and I did grow my skillset. Compensation was fair while I worked there, and as someone who was part of the 30% layoff in January 2023, I found the severance really generous. They didn't have to give us 12 weeks, but they did (I suspect they were just copying FAANG, but whatever, I'll take it).

Cons

#1 most important point is that this company cannot deliver what it's promised its customers. I don't see any way it can possibly meet its volume and deadline commitments, and I don't believe this company will survive. If you are considering a job here, understand this is a construction company masquerading as a tech company. ICON believes it's in the same category as FAANG while in reality most of its employees are doing hard physical labor. This leads to a culture that doesn't prioritize worker safety or humane work conditions, because it's behaving as if its workers aren't outside in harsh weather beating up their bodies over long overtime shifts. Instead they're trying to copy FAANG companies and software startup culture, which is inhumane applied to people who aren't software engineers. Others have covered the weird Tesla/SpaceX worship so I won't go into that. From an employee perspective, I saw a spike in people being fired during the lead-up to the layoff. How is it possible that, all of a sudden, so many people were underperforming when they'd been doing great for months or years? It was like a switch flipped on around September 2022 and suddenly there was continuous firings. It was underhanded, suspicious, and unethical. I suspect the company tried to fix its financial situation by spiking up the firing, and then turned to the mass layoff when it realized it couldn't possibly "fire for performance" quickly enough to fix it. All those canaries in the coal mine who got fired without severance in the months running up to the layoff -- it wasn't right what happened to you. I read all the other reviews here on Glassdoor and I'm not seeing anything I disagree with or think is overblown. If you have an interview to work at ICON, read everything here and think about it deeply.

Explore other reviews about ICON

5.0
16 Apr 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

ICON gives exciting opportunities to work with cutting edge technology, kind people, and exciting partners. Every day at ICON looks different and things are constantly new and different. It allows an eager employee to build a variety of skills and tools that they can use for their entire career.

Cons

Things at ICON are constantly changing. The ICON you may have worked at last year might not be the ICON you work at today. This can be really hard if you're not adaptable. It's also demanding and very "surge-y". It can be hard to predict when the big surges happen, but it's important to have a personal life that allows for periods of extreme commitment to your career (I am talking week-long+ sprints of working and sleeping only). This can be really difficult, if you aren't prepared for it. Another key challenge is that ICON is a true start up. Nothing is guaranteed. If you're looking for a stable and reliable workplace for longterm consistent comfort, look elsewhere. But fortune also tends to favor the bold.

5
3.0
29 Nov 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This company is a startup. A rather big startup, but still got the startup vibe. CEO is evangelical, an excellent salesman. Has brought in a ton of investment. He trends quite visionary, especially in the aesthetic domain. It is a good place to get your feet wet. We embrace big technical challenges. Per true startup style, an enterprising person willing to put in extra work can rise in the organization. Hard work and long hours are appreciated. And sometimes mandated, though the official 6 days/week requirement didn't work out so well... Come join us. The hiring process is a bit opaque and confused. We go through HR folks pretty regularly. Call back, use your inside contacts. Good luck, and see you soon!

Cons

Velocity is our motto. Chaos is our middle name. We embrace it. We reorganize. We change our toolchain. We layoff and fire, then we hire. We ride! Design-oriented CEO is less competent in the engineering/technical domain. Our robots are serious engineering/technical stuff. Company culture is a personality cult, revolving around the CEO. He wears a white cowboy hat. Always. The small "executive" huddle who surrounds the CEO worships the white hat. Only the CEO wears a white hat. No one else would dare.

5
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