Pros
Good exposure to a range of lab techniques. The compensation is competitive for fresh graduates. Decent starting point for fresh grads. This experience helped to gave a newer appreciation on the value of an English-speaking work environment and standard working hours, with weekends and public holidays off.
Cons
For non-Mandarin speakers, career progression here can feel like hitting a wall. Leadership is predominantly from mainland China, and as a result, most internal communication defaults to Mandarin, which is unexpected for a Singapore-based company. Non-Mandarin speaking employees often have to rely on mandarin speaking colleagues or in-app translation to stay informed, creating an uneven information flow. Responsibilities also appear to be distributed in ways that favor those who speak the language as they are able to communicate with the higher-ups. The higher-ups like to bring the work culture practices that are more common in China, which can translate to poor work-life balance and periods of overwhelming workload. This seems to contribute to a high turnover rate. Many employees, especially fresh graduates, leave within one to two years. Rather than addressing the root causes, the company appears to rely heavily on interns as a revolving-door stopgap. New hires are expected to be fully independent within a month of joining, which is an unrealistic standard. This expectation extends to interns as well, which can affect their grades.
