Learn, collect some equity, then get out - Autonomy Engineer Applied Intuition Employee Review

Talent density is real. You’re surrounded by sharp, driven people who like solving hard problems and moving fast. The culture genuinely embraces “done is better than perfect,” which means ideas don’t sit in slide decks they turn into action quickly. If you enjoy operating at break necking speed with smart teammates and meaningful problems in AI, autonomy, and defense, it can be an incredibly energizing place to work. Ownership is expected, initiative is rewarded, and the bar is high in a way that pushes people to level up quickly. Keep up or bow out, there's no shame in it.

The pace is not for everyone. Things move fast, priorities shift, and the expectation is that you keep up. It’s an environment where people who like intensity and autonomy thrive, but those looking for slower cycles or highly structured processes may find it demanding. As the company grows quickly, some processes are still catching up to the scale. If you get offended easily, don't bother.

- got exposed early to AI workflows

- Micromanagement: they hire senior engineers and don’t trust them to do the job. Instead, you spend most of your time trying to clean up documentation and slides to impress customers. - They use the profiles of employees that worked at Deep tech or prominent companies before to lure customers and eventually they’re not execution heavy. - Reviews: they do monthly reviews. Your review can go from excellent with a star to lacking and probably on the way to get fired in 3 weeks because maybe a delivery went wrong and you’re just part of a broader team. Or because a senior manager didn’t like you for whatever reason - Some managers are so arrogant and disrespectful people. They demean the engineers and keep pushing them as if they’re gonna motivate them to work. I was told from a senior manager, lead people by fear!! - Work is intense, you don’t even get a thank you for the hours, but rather, “if you did a better job, we wouldn’t be here”. The management tries to find an escape goat to blame - I worked for a year and never less than 60-70 hours a day with zero appreciation. - Career ladder is a joke: managers get promoted and again demoted in 6 months. I have witnessed many demotions in one year, like never in any company I worked for before and I worked for 6 companies before Applied. - The equity is not real. Don’t make them dazzle you with the fake numbers - Advice: go to LinkedIn, look for their employees and check the tenure. The majority of the folks are around for less than a year or a couple of months. - Products: I don’t know what they’re doing. They’re engaging with many companies and don’t have a roadmap for production. - Very bad culture; people don’t like working here and are drained. I barely stopped somewhere to have a short talk with someone. Everybody wants to leave. Talked to many engineers and managers. They just are there coz they don’t yet have an alternative