What's the current situation at Zoox?

Daimler / R&D
Begj15

Go to company page Daimler R&D

Begj15
Nov 24, 2020 38 Comments

Have recently started receiving mails from recruiters at Zoox. I was definitely interested in the company before, but I'm unsure after the amazon acquisition. Any current/ex employees can elaborate on the current state of things?

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 38 Comments
  • Zoox
    bezoed

    Go to company page Zoox

    bezoed
    Avoid if possible

    Explanation. Management screwed employees once before and now has a carrot on a stick. The vesting terms are horrible 6years. And if you decide to leave in middle or before 3 years you get peanuts. And you dont get to keep the zars after you leave. Also no amazon refreshers.
    Nov 24, 2020 2
    • Zoox
      UNGi82

      Go to company page Zoox

      UNGi82
      “Nothing” is quite an exaggeration. If you leave after 3 years you get paid, in cash, for 25% of your ZARs and have vested your entire AMZN RSU grant. If you end up leaving anytime before 3 years though these terms are bad, but again not “nothing”. Years 4, 5, and 6 are much better, of course. There are valid concerns to have about the vesting schedule but no need for misinformation on a public post about your own company.
      Nov 25, 2020
    • Zoox
      bezoed

      Go to company page Zoox

      bezoed
      Ok thats fair. Edited
      Nov 25, 2020
  • Zoox
    aichaE

    Go to company page Zoox

    aichaE
    Join us! We are building something big! Don't believe all the negativity about Zoox on blind, chef Steve cooks the best meatballs in the valley!
    Nov 24, 2020 2
    • You know your company has a bright future when the CEO tells candidates to ignore employee feedback and focus on the meatballs.
      Nov 24, 2020
    • Birst
      arhQ68

      Birst

      arhQ68
      Lol is this guy the Zoox CEO Lucid?
      Nov 30, 2020
  • Zoox
    !banana

    Go to company page Zoox

    !banana
    EDIT: After some thought, I’ve decided this post was a little overly critical of Zoox. It’s true that we have a lot of issues, but there are a lot of good things happening here, too, and sometimes I overlook that. Most of my complaints below are valid concerns, but not dealbreakers IMO. Every company I’ve worked at has dealt with many of these issues. I think the real reason for my discontentedness is that I haven’t been doing the kind of work I was looking for when I joined, but that’s my own fault as much as anyone else’s.

    Original post below:

    I’ve been at Zoox for a couple years now, and it’s honestly been a rather bad experience from a career growth perspective. The leadership of my org and the company as a whole leaves a lot to be desired. I also battle our development/validation processes and infrastructure far more than actual engineering problems. We’re still dealing with many of the same issues we were facing years ago, and we’ve failed to bring in new hires at anywhere near target rates to fill needs.

    I like my teammates and manager, but the work culture is a mess. Documentation is non-existent for too many things. We struggle with ownership and defining where responsibilities begin and end. The development cycle is often: put out an MVP without much thought to requirements and architecture and then have various engineers play hot potato and iterate on it for years with little direction. Follow-through on key projects is impossible when someone up the chain demands we drop everything to achieve some other milestone without sufficient consideration for the opportunity cost. Quarterly plans might as well not exist given how quickly they get thrown out the window.

    On top of this, individual agency and autonomy have taken a pretty big hit over the past year, perhaps in effort to address some of the aforementioned issues. It’s a very different company now from when I joined, and while the company is now financially secure, the employee experience is not necessarily better.

    While I learned some new tech when I joined and have definitely improved general software skills, the narrow scope of my work leaves me feeling like I’ve regressed in many other areas.

    Maybe other parts of the company are better, but from my experiences, I’d be hesitant to consider joining.
    Nov 28, 2020 14
    • Zoox
      bezoed

      Go to company page Zoox

      bezoed
      Yes just look at the difference between what the previous timelines were and what they are now. I truly believe what we have now is no way close to achievable. Based on the headcount and projects defined in timeline. It just looks better because our initial timelines were ridiculously aggressive
      Nov 30, 2020
    • Zoox
      UNGi82

      Go to company page Zoox

      UNGi82
      I think the fact you are still here shows some part of you believes it is possible. Like banana said, time will tell.
      Dec 1, 2020
  • Zoox
    Amazoox

    Go to company page Zoox

    Amazoox
    I wouldn’t recommend if your interested in anything like real money or career advancement opportunities. If your looking for ZARs this is the place for you
    Nov 25, 2020 7
  • Zoox
    zV2newguy

    Go to company page Zoox

    zV2newguy
    Joined recently. Seems like company is sort of transitioning from fire drills all the time due to being under-resourced to being a little more proactive. Kind of like a startup that got its first real funding and is starting to scale, which to me is not bad timing to join. Definitely some historic knowledge lost but on flip side means people are open to trying new things.
    Nov 25, 2020 0