Shapeways Reviews

Slowly, you will realize that the vision you were sold was probably thought up when someone was high, not the long term strategy for a company.There is deep bureaucracy even for a small company, brought on by lack of shared goals and trust between teams (and likely the corporate history of most of the management team.) You will see that the quarterly goals are a pipe dream and no one is ever truly help to them, as there aren't enough resources to get things done-- be it a tiny budget, not enough developers, or an unwillingness to spend the money on anything but factory operations. The focus of the company shifts wildly each 4-6 months as the management panics about one short-term concern or another, while letting the long-term growth and community of the business rot. Whiplash and feeling stretched too thin are a common feeling. The company doesn't care to remove had leaders, and bad managers stay for years despite many people leaving directly due to these people. The blatant lack of a clue as to how to run a business is astounding. Employee turnover is high due to these reasons, and once you get some experience the recruiters know where to look.

The CEO/Founder is unfortunately an expert in making decisions that are cheap and frugal at the moment, but costing everyone money and time later.... And not very much later. Software development is often derailed by topdown idea-decisions. Micromanaging via grand sweep gestures is a recurring theme. Pet projects that aren't fully evaluated for profitability or viability are fast tracked. The site usability isn't acknowledged for being as difficult as it really is, search is nearly useless, and the ordering process is frequently full of unpleasant surprises as prints get rejected for viability late in the process. Compensation at Shapeways NYC is very low for this sector, so coworker retention is a real problem. There's been extremely high turnover in the last couple years due to previous bullying management, and current management hopes that pay being around 20% below standard for this field will be ignored because of the "cool" factor. Interns are also paid the absolute minimum, which is ethically questionable. Very frustrating to keep losing good, deeply interested people because they can't justify working for super cheap for years. People can't hold on forever like this in NYC, so people feel like they're viewed as replaceable. Founder also acts unprofessionally sulky when someone finally decides to move on, and will pointely ignore them during the last two weeks.