Soar Tech reviews

2.8

37% would recommend to a friend

(58 total reviews)

Mike van Lent

44% approve of CEO

39% positive business outlook

Soar Tech has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 58 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Soar Tech employee rating is 27% below average for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

58 reviews
1.0
Jul 22, 2020

Grossly mismanaged

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to work with brilliant engineers and scientists. Pay and benefits are good.

Cons

Don't expect to be here long. Good hardworking people are constantly being hired and then fired. Its a stressful way to work and makes it difficult to enjoy. The company is in its third year of multiple unexplained layoffs happening throughout the year, and there is no reason to think it will end. You will probably have a hard time getting help from coworkers because nobody wants to invest time in someone who is going to be fired in the next quarter. Its harsh, but we are worried about our jobs too.

1.0
Jan 17, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are no pros to working at this company. As other reviewers have said, the company is instable. There may be things that seem like pros, but they are quickly outweighed by all the cons. And, as another review said, they are stuck in start up mode, but I would go one step further to say it is worse than start up mode, it is toxic-stagnant mode. And beware of the false reviews. You can easily spot them because they lack detail and the pros and cons are the same: "pro--learning and growing, con -- learning and growing." Soartech cannot keep using the excuse that they are "learning and growing" after being in business for 23 years!

Cons

- Layoffs occur whenever there is a budget shortfall. They just laid off over 10% of the company. They do not know how to manage cash flow. They say it is because of the nature of doing work in the Federal contracting space, but then they spend elaborately on things like ITSEC conferences, and bonuses, and hiring expensive managers who are not bringing in any $ or value added to the company. - In my opinion, management does not lay people off based on performance, it seems to be based on popularity. If you get on the bad side of the wrong person, watch out. - Around two years ago, they started hiring extremely expensive middle management; these directors did nothing to help the company, are a dead weight to the company, and a large overhead expense. - They will tell you when you are hiring on that they have an excellent culture and treat everyone like family. Their culture is the exact opposite. It is toxic. - There are two offices, one in Orlando and one Ann Arbor. The Orlando office is like a frat house. Employees at this office are more concerned about where they are going out to lunch on any given day than doing any work. Employees are unprofessional, they wear slippers in the office and take naps during the day. The Orlando office does not care about any Covid precautions. - We do not get support from our shared services--how are we supposed to win more work when we cannot get the necessary support from the contracts team? And, on top of that, they just laid off a few key people from that team. - As a company that got into the artificial intelligence industry early, one would think that they would be wildly successful after over 20 years, however, they are still a small, floundering company that cannot compete. This is due to mismanagement, not the technical talent that works there. - I question the business practice and the ethics of this company.

2.0
Aug 25, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

#1 is a chance at a jackpot. We're pretty sure ST is going to be sold off the day Dr Laird decides to retire and wants to cash out. When that day happens, your options vest. All of them. Saying that ST is a relaxed environment is putting it lightly. You actually don't even have to do a lot of work at ST. Spend your hours playing darts or switch. Nobody cares. One solid contribution to a project will get you a promotion no matter how many months you spent tweaking some GNN when a simple SVM would have done the job (you know who I'm talking about). And if you have soft skills, they will take you far at ST. Even if you aren't very good at what you do. If you kiss up to the directors enough, you will always have a seat at the table. My advice is to connect with the chief scientist on social media and like/share everything he posts. Go on amazon and give glowing recommendations of his books. He'll greet you by name in the hallway after that.

Cons

#1 is layoffs. Its just how this industry is. One month there is a ton of work on contract and the next its dried up and we have to lay people off. And you won't be asked to come back because there is an unending supply of fresh college grads who aren't burned out. #2 is we have zero tolerance for politics. If you are the type of person who wants to discuss politics at work, be forewarned that you will eventually get reported to HR for that crap. Frankly, most of us find your novice-level understanding of things annoying, but a few in the company who will put in serious effort to get you fired over it.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 58 Reviews

Glassdoor has 68 Soar Tech reviews submitted anonymously by Soar Tech employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Soar Tech is right for you.