Pros
Zymergen is innovating in a brand new space and it's very exciting. We have the brightest minds from many different disciplines coming together all in one place. We have strong support from our investors and a strong business pipeline in addition to current paying customers. The people here are self-motivated, bright, collaborative, and all-around fun to be around. The work is interesting and because it's still a growing company, there is so much space to make your mark. People are open to new ideas. The company provides a ton of benefits including flexible PTO, 100% medical benefits, flexible work environments, catered lunch, catered happy hour, fully stocked kitchens (with a large supply of avocados, yummy!) Upper management likes to have a culture of transparency with its employees and offers a regular All-Hands Meeting. It's a pre-IPO company that is growing and it's amazing for someone who enjoys being part of building something new. The customers we work with are big names in their respective industries. It's a great place if you want to rapidly gain new skills and boost your career since it's still small and growing.
Cons
It was not long ago this was a very small start-up company (under 50 people) and it has grown at a rapid pace to over 400 people in a few years, and because of that, certain things are still catching up, like building a regular way to communicate feedback to upper management, training for new managers, etc. Some of the past negative reviews on here may be a result of feeling like there are no avenues to "vent". That being said, the company is taking active measures to support its employees and ensure voices are heard and action is taken, like the recent launch of employee satisfaction surveys and other surveys that come out on a regular basis, as one example. Understanding what Zymergen does and explaining what Zymergen does to your friends takes some time (there's a lot of "well, I thiiiiink I get it...") but once you get it, you see the vast and incredible potential. It's incredibly exciting! It also seems "unsexy" at first but the materials innovation we are doing is novel and touches very exciting and innovative industries. There is a high level of confidentiality that we need to honor around our business so you can't always talk publicly about all the really cool things we do.