Most are specific to the San Diego location.
- BASF Enzymes is a subsidiary of BASF. It's still the same old, poorly run startup (Verenium-acquired by BASF) that it once was.
- Low pay: San Diego salaries are significantly below biotech industry standards.
- No professional development: This is where innovation goes to die. New ideas are shut down unless they come from the very top. Bench level scientists are expected to be a pair of hands, no brain needed. You will be micromanaged to death. Any deviation from the department director's will (no matter how reasonable) is punished.
- The desirable location in San Diego means there's always a long line of over-qualified people out the door, willing to work for pennies. Therefore, you see people with grad degrees becoming dishwashers or replacing robotic arms. It's a revolving door for new hires, while Verenium lifers stick around as they have nowhere else to go.
- As big a name as they are in chemicals, BASF is a nobody in the enzymes business. The big goal is to garner 3% market share, and being a comodities company, they need to get there cheap: No need for innovation, just try to copy someone else and sell it cheaper.
- Massive size: It's like working for the government. Things move at the pace of continents and nothing gets done in human years.
