Pros
The company has managed to hire very good scientists and engineers and to obtain considerable funding from initial rounds, despite the still unproven capabilities of quantum computing technology. Collaboration is great as well as learning opportunities. The full stack nature of the product currently pursued brings together a really diverse ensemble of skilled engineers. Benefits are great, salary OK.
Cons
As one of these more senior scientists/engineers I struggle regularly with: 1. Lack of a clear job description and responsibilities. 2. Many employees feel used like a pawn and moved around every month. 3. Egocentric CEO (Chad Rigetti, founder), who lacks basic management skills and overestimates his technical reach. If he is in a meeting with key managers/engineers, debate is discouraged, orders are given (often yelled), and fear for upcoming deadlines is often the only thing conveyed by him. This is the cause of chaotic and weak management, prone to prioritization of short term actions (despite the huge amount of breakthroughs yet to happen for this technology to ever materialize). 4. Ambitious, smart and hard-working engineers becoming demotivated is unfortunately frequently seen as a result of bad management. 5. Overworked employees.
