Pros
Office has parking. There's always work to do and opportunities to improve product.
Cons
Ouster does not have a good idea of the direction it wants to move. The company is constantly jumping onto the next thing before finishing the last and acquiring new projects without having the bandwidth to execute them. Their products and features are released and sold without considering its manufacturability and long before the ideas have become feasible. Sales are pushed for a product when one is deemed "good enough", while larger quantities are backwards engineered until all the kinks are worked out. This strategy may work for marketing, but it leaves their engineers overworked. Engineers are expected to work 12 hour days and remain on call to support manufacturing in SF and Thailand. This would be fine if overtime was offered, but there is no compensation for your time besides your base salary, which when divided up, leaves engineers grossly underpaid. If you are not part of the “inner circle”, meaning those who are buddy buddy with the higher ups, do not expect upward mobility or job security. Outside of their frequent layoffs, Ouster’s turnover rate is relatively high. Many high value employees are quitting in search for work opportunities with better work life balance and management. Drinking culture is out of hand here. Managers and VPs have alcohol at their desk before the work day is over. Managers attend meetings drunk or hungover and are visibly unable to remain professional during late night calls. Work culture is horrible. If you are a woman, I strongly do not recommend working here. The lack of professionalism is appalling and the misogynistic, power tripped men, aka the severely unbalanced majority of the employees, will leave you feeling unsafe at work. The amount of jaw dropping comments I’ve heard at this place of employment should scare any decently moral professional from wanting to work here. HR is next to nonexistent. There is only 1 person in the entire HR department covering all global offices. When employees want to make a complaint, they either don’t know who to go to, or HR is too busy to handle their complaint. Issues are not addressed, and inappropriate behavior continues to be enabled.
