An unstable company going backwards in progress - Lead Engineer Nikola Employee Review

1.0
20 Aug 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nikola had a bright future, we had money and a blank slate for vehicle development, as an engineer it was quite good in the early days.

Cons

During the turnover of multiple CEOs many people within the company promoted themselves to leadership positions that have no idea how to properly engineer a vehicle or lead successful teams. As a result, the company has an overwhelming number of employees in upper management. This company loves to throw job titles around whenever an employee is ready to leave as a bargaining chip, they are not earned over years of time like in other companies. Most of these employees come from other companies with little to no upper management experience and prefer to live in ignorance when problems arise within vehicle development and point fingers to other teams. This has led to a company run by hundreds of engineers with inflated titles who are rewarded by being smooth talkers and not developing vehicles. The end result is a poorly engineered product that is dangerous, hard to manufacture, not profitable and unreliable. The company recently enacted an unannounced and immediate mass layoff which has increased the demand of everyone's work and unmotivated all employees. Many of the laid off employees were ones that did actual work and much knowledge on how to continue to manufacture vehicles was lost. This new set of challenges has led to a financially unstable work environment. As a result nearly all my peers left or are looking to exit and stopped collaborating. I urge anyone considering to join Nikola to consider any other company.

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Nikola Response
2y
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, startups are hard and we’re trying to do something very difficult. That is, disrupt a very old and dirty trucking industry with zero emission trucks of the future. Changing the world takes money and our spending habits got a bit out of hand. So, last month we restructured the company to secure a better future. We’re now in a much more sustainable financial position. We’re coming off our best sales quarter ever and with the launch of our flagship hydrogen fuel cell electric truck, we believe the future is very bright. By the way, we asked around and we’d love to know how we can promote ourselves into to leadership positions. Sounds like it may be lucrative. In all seriousness though, we’re sad to read how discouraged you’ve become. Please feel free to discuss your concerns by setting up a private meeting with anyone in leadership. You will be heard. Or, if you’re comfortable, you can ask any question/raise your concerns at the next all hands meeting. And, of course, as always, you can come see us in HR. We’d love to help.

Explore other reviews about Nikola

5.0
4 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great company to work with. Good people who did good work

Cons

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3.0
26 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very interesting job with opportunities to learn about new technology and travel.

Cons

Work/life balance is nonexistent. Between long commutes and longer workdays, your work becomes your life.

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