Built Robotics Reviews

2.3

39% would recommend to a friend

(7 total reviews)
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Noah Ready-Campbell

Not enough data to show CEO approval

28% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

7 reviews
1.0
3 Mar 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lots of interesting coworkers but they may only stick around for a few months

Cons

Incredibly detailed micromanaging from leadership with little to no previous robotics or construction experience. Sometimes I was told exactly how to do my work and any deviation whatsoever was frowned upon. Because of poor leadership and less than stellar engineering progress has slowed to a snail’s pace and is arguably regressing in certain aspects. Problems can’t be solved with techniques that leadership doesn’t understand. Unfortunately this means some modern robotics methods are out of reach. All problems are approached by saying “What is the fastest/easiest way to bypass this?” or “How can this be fixed in 1 line?” rather than “What is the proper fix?”. Testing is discouraged because it takes time away from developing new hacks. The voluntary turnover is extremely high. I believe the annualized rate would be near 100% based on the past 6 months. Work hours are a strict 9-7 with absolutely no exceptions. If you are 3 minutes late there is a decent chance someone will notice and broadcast that you are late in the general slack channel. Need to leave an hour early to go pick up your child every day? Good luck - you might have to quit. Working with the CEO is acutely unpleasant - try to avoid it at all costs. I have seen people decide to quit after working directly with him on a project.

1.0
13 Oct 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The powerful machines were a large draw for many of us. The fellow engineers were a fun bunch outside working hours.

Cons

There was very little trust in the engineers. This led to extreme levels of micromanagement and mandatory hours. It was really hard to grow as a junior engineer because the rest of the company was quite young as well. Good ideas were often abandoned because the CEO "guided" most decisions despite not being particularly knowledgeable in robotics. There was an instance when someone who voluntarily left was subtlety mocked by management - this was quite unprofessional but unsurprising.

4.0
2 Aug 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Opportunity to broaden your skill set -- the company prioritizes hiring generalists, but people are encouraged to ramp up their skills for new projects as necessary. - Working with construction vehicles is big plus. - The employees are generally friendly and cool people. - Excavation is an interesting industry and working adjacent to it is a memorable and worldview expanding experience compared to working at a standard Bay Area startup.

Cons

- If you have time-intensive commitments or interests in your life outside of work, you'll likely have trouble finding time to fit it all in and sleep a reasonable amount. - When there was a tension between doing things the "right way" and doing things the fastest way possible, the fastest way possible often won during my time there. - Perhaps in part because the eng team was pretty junior during my time there, I don't think the eng team's input factored very strongly into decision-making.

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Glassdoor has 7 Built Robotics reviews submitted anonymously by Built Robotics employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Built Robotics is right for you.