Pros: Culture is one of the hardest things to get right, and Benchling has hit so much of it on the head. The first thing I'm consistently impressed by is how much people genuinely care about the mission. Not just raising money or becoming profitable, but transforming the way life science research is done, and thereby contributing to better medicine at a lower cost. Many of the employees, including both of the founders, came from biology research, where they saw first-hand the many problems plaguing the field. Some other aspects of culture that stand out: * An incredibly high degree of thoughtfulness (this comes through in ad-hoc discussions, company all-hands, and a multiple-day company retreat we do every year). * Tight-knit team: We have a culture of doing frequent 1:1s with people across the company. I have 7 recurring 1:1s, and frequently spontaneously ask others as well. * Nearly all the feedback I've given has been genuinely listened to and appreciated. * It is okay to admit mistakes and failures, and leadership regularly sets an example. For the work itself: I work as a software engineer, and the work is extremely interesting. As someone who doesn't have a background in biology, I'm relishing the opportunity to learn how the field operates. Not only do I pick this up from talking with PMs and sitting in on customer calls, I've also gotten to collaborate significantly with designers and even marketing. My days are 9:30-6:30, and I've only been asked to work overtime once or twice a year. I couldn't ask for a better place to work. And if I could, I'd be confident that we would work together to address my feedback.

Cons: The main con, which everyone is aware of, is the average lack of experience across the team, especially in engineering and leadership. One of the ways this comes out is that a lot of the learning comes from peers and on the job, rather than through more developed career growth paths. Compounding this problem, many of the early employees bear a lot of responsibilities that they ideally wouldn't in order to focus on higher-leverage activities. As to what we're doing about it, we're currently hiring especially for experienced leadership, and the founders estimate that up to a third of their time is spent on that because it's so important. For example, these leadership positions include VP of Engineering, VP of Sales, and Head of People Operations, in addition to a number of front-line positions.

Pros: Huge impact: Much of lab biology is still done on paper or in legacy software, and bringing it onto a modern system speeds up work by orders of magnitude. Our customers range from major pharma companies to small biotech startups to academic labs, and we have the potential to truly revolutionize the space. Nerdy culture: Most customer-facing roles, like sales and CX, require a biology background. Therefore, nearly everyone at Benchling is either an engineer or a scientist, which truly lends itself to a nerdy and scientifically-minded company culture. Openness: Transparency and collaboration are highly valued. There are regular AMAs with the executive team, and stopping by people's desks to ask questions is highly encouraged. Company trajectory: We've been in hypergrowth for a few years now, and it really looks like we are on a path to being a successful company in the long term. Inclusion and empathy: Everyone is generally kind, social, and empathetic. There is a focus on ensuring a comfortable work environment for people of all identities and backgrounds. We have affinity groups for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and women that meet regularly and host company-wide outreach events.

Cons: Can be high-pressure: We sometimes work to tight deadlines, and a downside of doing high-impact work is that it is actually important to get it right. I've never been required to work weekends or long hours, but sometimes I have to in order to hit deadlines. Growing pains: We're in hypergrowth, and there's basically always at least one process that has not caught up to our size and is causing difficulties. We notice and resolve these relatively quickly, but by the time one is resolved, another one has arisen just because we are growing so quickly. Pandemic WFH is getting old, but that's true in all software jobs right now.

Pros: Managers: smart, kind, emotionally intelligent leaders. Work/life balance. Product.

Cons: No cons. No cons. 5-word minimum.