Apptronik

Humanoid robots; Austin is a great city with lots of passionate employees and good personalities.

Oh, I could write a book… This is the kind of workplace that draws you in with exciting technology and what seems to be a modern company culture.

However, what you don’t realize is that the leadership is extremely inexperienced. This company was a spin-out of the UT robotics lab, and the senior leadership team is basically as experienced as they were when they left the lab and started the company.

What lack in leadership skills and business sense they have, they do not make up in technical ability either. They are afraid to try industry-proven techniques and engineering. They micromanage every engineering design decision you make.

And when you do a good job, they refuse to acknowledge it. In fact, instead, they take credit for your work. This is especially true with the patents they file, where they leave names off that were direct contributors to the patent.

While employed, they asked me to falsify data on tests that proved their ideas wrong. They would rather be right in their head than be right in reality. A lot of this was fear-mongering from the senior leadership above them. Everyone was walking on shellshocks for fear that if their design didn’t work, they would get fired. There was little innovation to be had.

After years of working there, they refuse to give promotions and raises, and will give poor feedback about what you could do to advance. They were happy to promote their core members and their senior leaders throughout the year, but would refuse to promote anyone else until annual review time. Also, if you’re an entry-level engineer, the starting salaries are well below market. Don’t expect to get a raise soon either.

The most toxic part of Apptronik is how passionate you become for humanoid robots, despite being treated poorly by the company. It’s a power dynamic that makes it very difficult to leave the company and find a new job. It feels like you’re giving up on your dream.

I highly recommend avoiding this company at all costs and finding something else to do with your time.

Sell the company before it’s worthless.