Cons
Working for this company felt like the worst of both worlds. It's broke as a startup and uptight like an old big corporation, minus the financial stability, the stable share value in the market, and the realistic vision.
- About their product:
Any "cool picture" that you see of the jet is just a model. The jet doesn't exist; they just made AI designs for online ads and big-size toys to get investors hyped and for some PR articles.
- Remote work:
Their organizational practices can be described as Jurassic. Don't fall for the "hybrid work" description on LinkedIn. They are not organized to have even a minimal hybrid culture.
- Location & commute:
Their "offices in Munich" are not really in Munich. If you don't have a car, be prepared to invest 3 to 4 hours commuting every day (1.5-2 hours each way). They don't offer any benefit for transportation (which is a very standard practice in Munich even for companies located in the city center).
The closest U-Bahn station doesn't have a direct bus to the office; you need two buses to make it to the office. There is a "Lilium bus" but with the most inconvenient schedule. You will need to wait at least 25 minutes from when your U-Bahn arrives until this bus arrives to take you to the office (the same time you could use for the route using the two local buses).
- Food:
Bring food! This office is in the middle of nowhere, and you will only get lunch from 11 to 12:30. After that, you will be fasting until you manage to leave that town. They don't even have the standard fruit baskets or cereal bars that you would expect in a startup in 2024 (even if you have to pay for them yourself). Since this is in the middle of nowhere, they should give you some access or option to eat during the 7 hours that you would be working there, but since it seems like they are struggling financially, they don't invest the minimum for their employees. (They used to have vending machines in the past, no anymore)
- "Culture"
If they were really invested in the environment as they claim with the promise of the first electric jet, they would apply some green practices in their offices, but they don't. The whole philosophy feels kind of fake when you print papers like there's no tomorrow, don't offer a green commute option for your employees, and I could go on and on.
- Accepting their offer:
If you are looking for a job in Germany and they offer something, take it while you keep searching for another job. That is the only scenario where I could "recommend" this company. If you are German, trust me, you can find something better. Do yourself a favor and apply to any other company in the world; I'm sure it is impossible for those companies to be worse than this.
- Final thoughts.
If you check on Twitter or LinkedIn, you can find consistent messages from people who left the organization sharing similar experiences, and some of them haven't even received their severance payments, so they resort to these public profiles to get the attention of their HR team.
I just felt insulted by the lack of basic benefits while expecting me to go to the office every day, the lack of inclusive leadership (just old white men in this company have management roles), and the lack of supportive people to work with in general.
