Amyris Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Amyris full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Amyris has lots of talented scientists and engineers who are passionate with R&D

Cons – Upper management who are unfamiliar with technology set up impossible goal based only on economic calculation.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Amyris

Pros – Coworkers are top notch. The Associate Scientists/RAs are all hard-working and fun to be around. The lab scientists and project leaders are some of the most intelligent, creative, and hard-working people I've met. Just brilliant. Benefits are decent, trying to stay on par with many other tech startups in the area.

Cons – The company retains way too many managers. Many high-level employees are bad at their jobs, many are quite unproductive, and some positions are even redundant. They command large salaries for being good at snaking up the ladder and not advocate for their workers. When layoffs happen, it is almost all salary-cheap, diligent RAs/lab scientists that are forced to leave. The ratio at one point was practically 2 managers to every 1 lab employee. The company shows no loyalty to those who have saved the business through innovation before. Prepare for the pharma treatment.
Upper management is completely disconnected from the science. There is large amounts of politics and dishonesty involved in major decisions.

Advice to Senior Management – If you are going to trim the fat, start higher up the chain. Most importantly, stop selecting for dishonest, selfish, overly-aggressive yes-men/yes-women to be promoted to directors and such. Look for those who have strong technical understanding of the science, advocates his/her employees, gains the trust of those they work with, and develops the talent of the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Amyris full-time for more than a year

Pros – Exciting science with a purpose. Great people, fun work environment, excellent benefits.

Cons – Informal communication (rumors), lack of strategic focus, dependent on outside funding.

Advice to Senior Management – Internal communication channels are improving, this has tendency to become old - don't let it. Company needs to place more emphasis on specific targets/products and then push them to market. Too much departmental change, find a focus and go with it.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Amyris full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The scientists are truly first rate. These are some of the best strain engineers in the world. Everyone in Research is encouraged to experiment outside of standard project plans and to follow their own intuitions.

Cons – The company is very, very management heavy, especially at the top layer. The majority of the personnel at the top layer are not very good at their jobs, nor do they spend any effort in nurturing the careers of the people below them. The overall culture seems accepting and fun on the outside, but on the inside, there's an incredible amount of dishonesty and politics involved with nearly every major decision. Boundaries are poorly delineated and people fight over them constantly.

Advice to Senior Management – Get rid of the executives who don't contribute high value and who are not helping grow the talents of the company. Invest in the futures of the lower-level staff or they're going to leave. Replace the senior HR official(s) with true employee advocates that mid-level managers and lower can trust to help them. Remove the last remaining founder, as he is manic, unfocused, and does nothing but disrupt important work and cause problems while pulling down an oversized salary.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Amyris

Pros – Overall, the employees are warm and friendly. There are so many personality types that you're bound to find people you identify with.

Cons – Amyris is overstaffed, particularly in the higher levels of the organization. The company spends frivolously while we are not profitable and have a very negative cash flow. Lastly, the managerial staff have little to no experience is supervising another person which allows for office politics to become easily involved.

Advice to Senior Management – Reduce the weight of the organization but not at the expense of the folks who are truly running the science. Re-evaluate managerial positions and re-train those who need assistance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend