Used to be great, but recently changed for the worse
Pros
• During the beginning of my time at Lyndra, I would have rated my experience 5 / 5 stars. • The technology is innovative and interesting to work on. There is no shortage of problems to find solutions for. There is a lot of potential in this technology. • Other scientists and engineers are amazing to work with. The people working on problems are smart and dedicated to the problems. • At least at one point, this was a great company to work at as a young scientist/engineer. You could gain a lot of diverse experience very quickly.
Cons
• Management / executive team is asking people to do tasks for which the employees are overqualified, and it causes huge inefficiencies. For example, scientists with PhD’s are asked to be manufacturing operators instead of spending time on improving the technology. • The company as a whole is disorganized, and scientists/engineers suffer the consequences. For example, scientists/engineers try to make improvements, but management is resistant and has unclear expectations for how implementation should happen. It discourages innovation. • Planning can be sparse and short-sighted. Timelines, when they exist, are rarely realistic. • Leadership often does not prioritize properly. It isn’t uncommon for people to be working on several “top priority” tasks all at once, which consequently makes none of them top priority. • The prevailing culture is that “quick and dirty” solutions are valued more than quality, robust solutions. It leads to a never-ending spiral of “quick fixes”. • The company seemingly values their employees' input less than before. For example, some executives' mentality is that is "isn't the company's responsibility to make their employees happy" (this has been said to employees several times over, almost word-for-word). Whether you agree with this statement or not, it gives insight into Lyndra's relationship with the employees. • While career growth opportunities were pretty good for a while at Lyndra, they are virtually nonexistent now. Promotions (whether accompanied by pay increases or not) have not been happening, opportunities to attend conferences are limited, and opportunities to lead important development efforts are difficult to come by. • Overall, Lyndra needs a lot of cultural and managerial changes before I could consider recommending it again to prospective employees.