Working at Cycorp, Inc — Reviews by Employees

CyCorp is a "mom and pop" shop that collects logical propositions formulated by people with college degrees that seldom lead to gainful employment. The company calls this huge collection of logical propositions: "Cyc". The Department of Defense funds this proposition generating activity which benefits the "mom and pop" of this shop. In the past, the DoD anticipated that the huge collection of propositions entered by people with college degrees would be very valuable. This anticipation fueled a period that could best be called "throwing money at Cyc". After a lot of money was thrown at Cyc and little emerged from that, the amount of money thrown has steadily decreased, leading to the shedding of many employees in a way not much unlike the way a dog sheds unneeded hair.

Deflating corporations are depressing corporations to work for. I don't see much of a future here. If the economy was better, I'd go back home, but it is bad there to, so I will hang on at Cycorp and hope that a better opportunity comes before the dog sheds all its hair and all that is left is a naked cat.

This company has grown much smaller over the years. I think of it like a tea kettle filled with sludge. As the water is burned off, all the remains is a concentration of caustic compounds. Management is mean. The relationship between coworkers is a zero sum game, always scurrying about to grab whatever crumbs the defense department throws our way. We've all expected to go public for years, but we're still as far away from that goal as we were a decade before. In the past few years, we grew so small we had to move into an office building with parking on a sloping hill, narrow corridors, and all kinds of weird neighbors.

I worked at Cycorp as a linguist. Cycorp is not a good place for linguists. The company's president thinks he knows more about linguistics than anyone, but he knows very little. That makes it difficult for people who know more than him to grow.

I'm not impressed with the company in general. Very little progress has been made over the last ten years. It's close to my office, so that makes things not too bad.

Cycorp is really about amplifying the presidents thoughts. Their interview process is the most anal-retentive I have seen. Cycorp asks you to answer five questions with either Yes or No or Cannot Answer. Very brittle. Then they make you fill out some EEOC forms and really come off as being overly legalistic. Then the phone filter comes. You will NOT be asked about anything on your resume... if you mention anything, your comments will be brushed off immediately as being unimportant. Instead you will be required to answer a battery of questions of Prolog and Lisp. It is not important that you know the answer; what is important is that you are intellectually submissive. It quickly becomes apparent that Cycorp is very interested in hiring employees that are robotic, and not interested, at all, in your skills or creative solutions that you may offer. They don't really respect you, and you can tell that they are very much impressed with themselves. Pay and benefits are below par for the work/life balance they are offering. Career potential is miserable. The executive ranks are completely predetermined, and Cycorp's standings in the field is controversial, at best. Job security is poor unless you are submissive and want to amplify the president's party line; otherwise you will quickly start feeling to be the outcast and will need to move on to find some job satisfaction. Co-workers? Misery loves company! The work environment is spartan and basic with no frills.

If you love Lisp and Prolog, you might like it here. If you like to conform, we want you!

I came to CyCorp excited by the reputation of its president, but left wondering how it is that anyone would take him seriously. Management talks down to employees and plays dirty tricks behind employees' backs. Benefits are OK, but more than canceled out by the displeasure of working there. Layoffs are frequent. You feel like its all about the president of the company, not about the company's product. The only people who stay for more than a few years are total ass-kissers. I found the programmers to be below average in ability and talent. The work environment is toxic.

Pay: The pay is not too bad. Respect: The management has a lot more respect for bureaucracy and paperwork than for human beings. God forbid you try to actually get anything done without getting permission from 4 people first. The upper management is pretty full of themselves. Benefits: Good, but not the best. Job Security: They regularly lay off critical employees to cover horrible management decisions -- even just a couple of months after big hiring sprees. Work/Life Balance: They expect work to be your priority in life. They expect you to work weekends to accomplish minor goals that the management has unilaterally decided are important. Career Potential/Growth: Cycorp's bad reputation in the AI community doesn't help. Location: Austin is wonderful. Co-worker Competence: Most of the employees are pretty sharp. The management is incompetent. Work Environment: Depressing. Work all the time. Make sure all the paperwork is filled out!

Great place to work if you're a Scientologist. They even have Dianetics in their tech library.

The pay is really really bad. Way below market level. Most computer scientists there earn about $40,000 - that's a joke!

The president of the company has an inflated ego and makes snarky remarks to workers. He thinks he's so smart that no one will know that they are being put down, but the joke is on him. He is unliked and a bafoon.

The CFO obsesses about people she doesn't like and then makes their lives hell.

Benefits are nothing to get excited about.

If you're a brown-noser, then your job is secure. If not, you're history.

Takes up most of your free time. Not a great place for married people or people with kids.

Austin is OK.

Most brown-nosers don't know much, so don't expect much from your coworkers. They have ajob because of their lack of self respect.

The work environment is nasty. A lot of ganging up on people while pretending to be friends.

Most of us earn about 70% of the going salary for our positions.

Management shows no respect for employees, especially HR which treats everyone like crap.

Benefits are very good.

No one feels secure there (at least no one I talk with does).

The place is kind of cult-like with many employees there at all hours.

Texas is boring, but if you're going to be stuck in Texas, I guess Austin is OK.

Most people are very bright, but nerdy and needy.

The environment is not impressive. It's kind of stuffy and there is a pale of fear over many people.

Pay: Cycorp prides itself on how low it pays its employees. I have witnessed the president of the company bragging about how low the pay is. One woman was doing engineering work and was being paid at the same rate as a waitress. The company makes it a fire-able offense to let anyone know what you earn. I obtained the information and found that the President of the corporation was earning about 10 x his average engineer.

Respect: This company shows the lowest level of respect for its employees of any place I have worked. The company even has a system of punishments for workers who make mistakes on time cards. The head of human resources is the wife of the president of the company which makes objective complaining about the corporation impossible. When she decides to get rid of a worker, she encourages other employees to engage in harassment.

Benefits are what you would expect.

The company has a high turn over rate. Employees are mysteriously fired. It is the only place I have worked where an employee quit and stated that the company's lack of ethics was the primary reason he was quitting.

Work/Life Balance: The company prefers employees with no children. It likes to see them there day and night.

Career Potential/Growth: I have to put ZERO here. No one who has ever left this company has had a good time finding work later. Some of us believe that human resources intentionally gives bad references to keep ex-employees out of the workforce. Within the company, everyone who rises is later nailed back down.

Location: Beautiful.

Co-worker Competence: Average

Work Environment: Dingy, poor, uncomfortable...