Peter H. Diamandis

A Spaceship without a Mission Control - Career Stopper Hope you enjoyed your career up until this point because applying for a position here will essentially force your retirement, leave you hating your job, or leave you stuck in the Sunken Place ala "Get Out" (pun not intended but applicable). The quote on the application for a position here "Willing to Wear Multiple Hats" ,with regard to helping in other areas outside your job description, will essentially lead you down a suffocating rabbit hole where your career will take more hits than Alice did in Wonderland. When you finally come to, you'll realize the job you applied for and the job your currently have have nothing in common, and unfortunately it'll set your career back around 5 years ( 5 years for every year at XPRIZE). Other reviews mention that XPRIZE has a start-up mentality, which is true, but the start-up here functions as successfully as the Zune was (for younger individuals the Zune was supposed to compete with the Ipod... RIP). Executive and senior level individuals will offer your services without even consulting or informing you leaving you with the same feeling as George Clooney floating away in space in Gravity. 2. CEO: The rating of the CEO on the Glassdoor page for XPRIZE, if anything is skewed up, when in actuality it should be much lower. A foundation like XPRIZE should have a CEO who clearly understands how to exactly execute the mission of the foundation while being able to clearly understand how to progressively transform how to set up prizes, reach a broader audience of donors and interested teams. Instead, the CEO has provided limitless funding to unproven platforms that frequent borderline plagiarism. Instead of uniting the workforce, especially during dangerous times we face now, frequently she uses weekly gatherings to attack and pick on individuals who simply ask questions in the company message board regarding new directions the foundation will be taking. Questions that arises essentially because of her lack of ability to clearly articulate and explain her vision for the company leading to general confusion and dissension. When questioned she flaunts that she was the "CEO at a multi-million dollar company", when in actuality if you search for the company "Prodea" ,which she is co-founder and serves as the Executive Chairwoman of, you'll see similar ratings to those of XPRIZE where individuals at the company were not even paid for their services. 2. Leadership & Inaction: Apart from what has been mentioned above about the CEO, the real leaders at this foundation have had their influence reduced and minimized by the CEO's promotion of certain individuals, in particular the Chief Innovation and Growth Officer. This individual had had multiple complaints filed against him to HR (oh by the way HR consists currently of one individual after the entire HR department was let go) and instead was rewarded by the CEO with a full time C-level executive position. He subverts the PrizeOps departments and has zero accountability and transparency with regard to what he actually does at the company. He regularly fails to attend weekly gatherings and inform the rest of the company on dealings leading to confusion. His department is funded based on lies and false promises that he claims his platform can deliver on and offer, that to this day have never been presented in front of the company nor verified by competent individuals. His ?platform? is spearhead by the equally dubious Chief Technology Officer who works in tandem with the CIO. For those who truly enjoy their careers in IT, this individual will ruin your career. His lack of respect for his team is made self-evident through the outrageous deadlines he sets for his team combined with his arrogant and often insulting nature when it comes to berating members of the team in meetings. He frequently tries to scapegoat members of the team because of his own failures, basic lack of qualifications to be a CTO, and inability to deliver upon what he has promised, leading to an uneasy and often anxious feeling felt by those in the team. For those that disagree with his opinion, his solution is to question your loyalty to the team and subsequently seek to terminate your employment. His lack of planning is clearly evident to the rest of the organization as requests submitted by various department are frequently not met because of his fidelity to the Chief Innovation and Growth Officer?s requests which he prioritizes over others leading to certain departments striking out and seeking their own IT solution. He believes he is accountable to no one which further highlights his lack of respect for those members of his team who have to create his plagiaristic vision. If your looking for someone who truly cares about your personal growth and development in your career, you?ve come to the wrong place. XPRIZE has become the Titanic and these two individuals will sink this ship. 3. Transparency: Its as transparent as a one-way mirror. Team Council does its best, but the very implementation of a "Team Council", where executive leadership is not invited to, simply highlights the lack of trust that individuals feel in sharing their true thoughts and ideas about the foundation itself. 4. Work/Life Balance: None. Your work will consist of digging out of the millions of promises and requests accepted by your managers and executives that have been placed on your shoulders to deliver on. You'll always have a feeling of instability and anxiousness because failure to deliver on any one of these unreasonable requests in the absurd timeline presented will lead to off-the record calls in the middle of the night where you are chastised for not working 12 hours. Reporting any issues you?re having to HR is useless because of lack of confidentiality which will only speed up your exit. PTO is treated more as a gift rather than something you've earned and have the right to take. 5. The way this company initially handled COVID-19 was frankly embarrassing. Two individuals (the CTO and Chief Innovation and Growth Officer) were in Italy prior to news of the outbreak and no one at the company was alerted to the fact that they had been abroad and in contact with many individuals at the company. When companies began shutting down offices, employees began questioning what the delay was with regard to the actions that would be taken by executive leadership. An employee simply asked the question about what measures were being taken by the company in the foundation public discussion forum which was met by derision by the CEO, and that she would keep the office open for ?those who wanted to come in? essentially mocking those who wanted to take precautions by working at home. A day later LAUSD closed all schools and the office was closed?..