Pros
I’ve been with the company for 3.5 years. At the start, it was great - the company had a great onboarding program, work/life balance, the colleagues were (and still are!) approachable and knowledgeable. I felt connected to the company mission because my role felt truly science-centered despite the fact that I was in sales.
Cons
In the past 1.5 years, things have been quickly going downhill. Corporate and upper management doesn’t know how to deal with economic headwinds, making decisions that make no sense to the employees. They don’t give reasoning behind their decisions and there is a lack of transparency in how the majority (if not all) of these impactful decisions are being made. There have been 3 rounds of layoffs in the past year and the majority of those affected were the individual contributors. Now, it has become even more noticeable that there are a lot of managers and fewer people for them to manage. Good scientists do not necessarily make good business decisions, and not everyone is meant to become a people manager. The company is yet to realize this. They cut parental leave term in nearly half, froze hiring, promotions, and merit increases. Not to mention the fact that getting a promotion had become so bureaucratized that you need to apply for a senior role within your career track, meaning you need to wait for such a position to “open” and to go through internal interviews. With many people in manufacturing and R&D having been let go, I cannot say for sure if STEMCELL will continue being able to compete in the market. There is a history of some important product launches being delayed by 0.5-3 years. Some launches are ~5 years out in the future, meanwhile there are competitors that can already fulfill market needs, so pouring money into R&D doesn’t make sense in this situation. Many minor product lines are neglected, with insufficient or outdated data, or subpar performance compared to newer competitor products on the market.