Aechelon Technology Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Aechelon Technology part-time for less than a year

Pros – Low to No Drama, and very professional. You can stay very focused. Lots of young, witty, smart people- constant stream of work.

Cons – Was just part-time, wish they had full-time positions.

Advice to Senior Management – Offer 1 or 2 full time positions in the 2D artist department with decent salaries, and maybe there will be less of a turn-around.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Aechelon Technology full-time for less than a year

Pros – Extremely nice hours. Loved the 8 hour workday. The work itself was interesting enough. The people who worked there were completely amazing and super fun. They offer very decent health benefits.

Cons – There's very little creative leeway that employees are allowed to make. Aechelon is sitting on a team of extremely creative, passionate, and dedicated artists who are not asked for their input. It seemed that there was very little room for growth as a career path within the company.

In addition, working at $17/hr while paying off expensive school loans and living in San Francisco is unsustainable. From what I understood, the salary stays at $17/hr until the employee is brought on as a salaried employee, which usually takes over a year and a half. In my opinion, this is extremely unethical to keep their employee base at the poverty level.

The way that Aechelon terminates employees keeps their current workers living in fear. I personally was given about 15 minutes of notice before I had to pack my things and leave. This same thing happened to other employees and seems to be the way that Aechelon consistently conducts itself. We may be temporary employees, but giving people notice to be able to position themselves to recover from financial ruin is an ethical and noble thing to do.

Aechelon neglects to give out unemployment forms, thus making an already difficult day more difficult. I've been told that unemployment is available, but it appears that enabling it is not possible to do online, since that process requires the form that Aechelon could have easily provided.

Advice to Senior Management – When you invest in your employees and treat them like they're people, your company will usually do extremely well. Please pay your employees a decent, livable wage, don't keep them living in fear of being terminated at any time, and allow them to contribute creatively to your pipeline. Keeping the leash too tight around the necks of your talent doesn't benefit you, especially not in the long run.

I wish you all the best, and hope that things improve for the sake of the employees who continue to thrive in spite of your revolving doors.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aechelon Technology full-time

Pros – Great pay, benefits, and profit sharing
Reasonably flexible work hours
Company's mission and goals are for a good cause, feels meaningful

Cons – Founding management does not trust employees to do a good job, constant supervision and lots of second-guessing. Self-starters outside of founders are discouraged.
Very steep and long (multi-year) learning curve. Odd engineering practices very out of sync with rest of industry and painful.
Work is tedious due to poor tools and outdated approach, only the founders are able to get work done quickly.
Very, very slow pace due to above. Frustrating for someone used to being productive and self-driven. Could be a positive for someone just looking for a steady job.
General agreement that tools and practices in use are unproductive, but only lip-service given to fixing the problem. Trying to work around or fix the broken workflow is strongly discouraged.

Advice to Senior Management – Trust employees to be autonomous. Update to modern engineering tools. Encourage motivated employees rather than place arbitrary roadblocks. In general, empower your engineers to do their best - they're capable of a lot more.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Aechelon Technology

Pros – - Thorough training program
- Free shuttle service for employees in that area
- Good for students who need to come and go easily
- Some friendly co-workers

Cons – - Below average pay
- Tiny bonus
- Large and tedious workload
- Currently no room for advancement
- Strict company policies
- Chatting with your peers is discouraged
- Dull and windowless office
- Little respect for contractors. Treated like children, Herded like cattle
- Low morale amongst team members
- Zero benefits

Advice to Senior Management – An offer for fulltime employment or salary adjustment should be presented after six months of service. Should promote from within instead of hiring from the outside.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aechelon Technology

Pros – Flexible work schedules for students, and easy access to public transportation. Non consumer oriented work environment. Comfortable work chairs and desks.

Cons – Lower than average pay. Higher than average work loads. Little or no room for growth. Poor integration into the work force for new hires.

Advice to Senior Management – Adjust employee pay based on performance. Improve communication between all employees and management. Empower your employees to make informed decisions on their own. Remove "Yes Men" from supervisory positions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Aechelon Technology full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Perfect place to work to have an impact on the training of our warfighters.
The sky is the limit for self-starters.
Great compensation and benefits.
Very loyal and dedicated group of employees to work with.
Flexible hours with some work-from-home positions.

Cons – Not the place for someone who has to be constantly handheld.
Not the place for someone who doesn't want to work their butt off.
Not the place for someone with poor attention to detail.
Not the place for someone with a poor moral character.

Advice to Senior Management – The only advice I have is to somehow improve communications with employees on current projects and ask for their feedback.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Aechelon Technology full-time

Pros – Compensation exceeds comperable employers
Benefits are far above the industry average (excellent health care)
Hard work is recognized and rewarded
Company culture encourages openess and creativity
Flexibility of work schedule
Company provides generous profit sharing
Never a dull moment
Company is customer focused
Management is both visionary and ethical

Cons – Chaos of a small, growing business can be exhausting at times
Inter-departmental communication could be better
Not all employees are empowered

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the good work - thanks for sharing company success with all employees

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company