Goldfinch Bio Reviews

2.2

15% would recommend to a friend

(11 total reviews)

15% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

11 reviews
1.0
30 Apr 2019

Worst company and awful culture

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

None. Used to provide plenty of snacks, not anymore due to cost cutting.

Cons

Worst company I have ever worked for. They hired a bunch of inexperienced recent doctorates and gave them multiple reports. Result was micromanagement and distrust. Manager takes credit of all the work Poor experiments planned. Leadership doesn’t care about these issues

2.0
9 June 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Food amenities and 4 administrators and location and facilities; pay is competitive

Cons

Many SVPs and VPs but not enough people doing ground work: upside-down pyramid! Non-leadership team members are overworked or are pulled in many directions. Very homogeneous leadership (mostly males and just 2 white females) with BigPharma mentality attempting to apply to startup pharmaceutical biotech. Issues occur when leadership members are vying for promotions and people to manage because they are not used to startup work. which requires self-drive and self-physical work. Lack of direction for business as well as science; lots of flip flopping so constantly changing priorities which is difficult for the us to do our current work. Layoffs of RAs, scientists at many levels occurred and were justified because of budget and Covid-19, but a week later two new senior leadership members were hired. Interestingly all 4 administrators for a less than 50 person company remained. Rationale for layoffs are not really transparent when there is such a contradiction; damaged morale but people fear for job security during Covid. Leadership members are not on the same page. There was constant pressure to re-enter the lab during quarantine. Leadership members can be promoted anytime but career development for the rest is sluggish with no career latter in place for any hope of advancement. Losing original scientific, business, and financial leadership to new "big pharma" mentality replacements has resulted in disjointed scientific and business decisions and lack of vision, thereby affecting we scientists on our computers or in the lab. Disillusionment is happening as patients are no longer the driving force, but career advancement for VP and SVP members at the expense of the poor worker bee lower level scientists and support. They only want worker bees who do as they are told; there is no room for creativity or ideas from the non-leadership team. We are not treated as experts in our field, but rather chess pawns to do work. Leadership members are constantly trying to dive into areas on non-expertise Things that need improvement: 1) diversity and tolerance for leadership members of who observe or hear about acts of racism/sexism/classism --"old-boys club mentality"-and the least diverse group I've ever worked with in all my years 2) support for male parental leave (important for me because my partner also works); felt pressure just to take a short leave although we have unlimited vacations which really only means you don't get vacation paid out if/when you leave 3) prioritization and direction for short-term and long-term programs; leadership team wants no commentary from non-leadership team members; do as you're told or the PC version do as "strongly suggested" mentality 4) career development opportunities for non-leadership members need to be available 5) transparency needs to be improved 6) benefits: 401K, career development opportunities 7) poor management of Covid crisis; showed us $ is more important than team members and their safety; very concerning 8) 401K would be nice

1.0
21 Aug 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Ice cream trucks when most people are working remotely! Lots of secretaries/admins at the moment! Competitive salary for Cambridge with no limit on vacation days (but tensions can occur if you want to request time off and now vacation day payouts if they fire you or if you quit). If you don’t need a visa, this company may be fitting for you! Great office space and view.

Cons

Anti-diversity is rampant : *hint don’t apply if you’re a minority* (inappropriate comments about South Asian Indians, many minorities have been fired or have left, not progressive to supporting women starting families, males who need paternity leave, or visa holders, not supportive of career development of research associates or scientists, sexism, ageism, and racism abounds). Poor/no policy change or accountability for lack of diversity. No minorities on the leadership teams. Poor management: unproductive, Apathetic VPs who do not manage team or contribute with scientific vision, other “leaders” more concerned with promotions and titles and their new kitchens/boats, or summer house, micromanagement but lack of direction, no Leader with scientific depth in kidney biology/signaling any more, poor team dynamics and lack of cohesive Long-term goals, random and ever changing goals so nothing is accomplished, no vision for new programs, Big-pharma mentality (lots of VPs and managers and very few overworked lab, computational, and supporting consultants with little chance of promotions). Sad transition for a company that showed so much potential. Nepotism-hiring family while others are laid off during COvId cutbacks. Unprofessional, especially for these times of poor job security. Human Resources Dept does unable to help when concerns are broached for issues on bullying by persons of power, lack of diversity, sexism, racism, ageism. Lots of surveys that lack transparency, especially for people who do stats and graphs for a living, who know when data is presented in a “special” way. Surveys lead to no actions. Things are done for appearance. No real inspiring leaders any more. Pressure to please rather than true rigorous experimentations and conclusions. Aggressive directors in middle management who feign understanding of biological science, Contribute to hostile take overs of scientist and RAs to expand their own teams, and Promote demotivating and a toxic management. Maybe this works in Big Pharma, but it doesn’t work for the requirements of the small dynamic startup biotech world. No understanding of biological models for kidney cell culture. Lacks understanding of signaling pathways. Genetics is not its own superior field, and a full understanding of contemporary biology and biological techniques is unappreciated for Target validation and genetics Middle management Directors who are old school and stuck in their qpcr comfort zones. People being laid off or are quitting every month should be a sign that the culture is BAD, especially in a pandemic! Science is suffering so much in this company. Wasted money due to lack of long term decision making commitments.

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