A major management mis-step that leads to poor morale - Senior Engineer Second Sight Employee Review

Excellent people and mission. I was proud to work for this company

Limited funding (thus the company closed its doors in March of 2020 during the height of the Coronavirus Pandemic)

It is a small company and as an engineer, you will have many responsibilities in a wide variety of work. The people you will work with are all very easygoing and pleasant. The culture is fairly laid back, although that may depend on the department you are in. The company mission is very interesting and if you want to contribute directly to the creation of new medical technology, this is the place. If you are extremely self motivated and willing to teach yourself and pursue your own projects, you will definitely have the freedom to do so here.

The management of projects has not been very good. There is the habit of picking up many small projects and losing focus on the big picture. A significant amount of the work is not towards real, forward progress of the product, but rather just fixing manufacturing mistakes or making insignificant changes. Upper management seems afraid of making big changes because of regulatory burden, but such is the nature of the medical device industry. The worst thing about the company has to be compensation. It is much lower than you would expect for the talent required, and as a result the turnover, especially for younger engineers, is very high. Nearly everyone has left after 2-3 years for much better pay elsewhere.