Attn: Cascade Aerospace Engineering Management Team
Pros
- We do cool stuff, and yes, that's the best way to put it. I would absolutely spend the rest of my career at cascade if a few issues are addressed. - Great at getting exposure to multiple avionics systems from concept to flight test; you don't get that at many aerospace companies. - Awesome place to get solid cross-functional experience on very complex aircraft modifications. There is a lot of opportunity to "advance" (I'll get to that later). - Opportunities to work on civilian and Military aircraft is incredible - I'd say its one of a very few set of companies that allow the opportunity for this. - Coworkers are fun; easily the best part of working here. - Paid hourly, so overtime is actually paid (when authorized)
Cons
- There is a joke going around the engineering department that you must have "grey hairs" in order to receive a promotion. This is true on a fundamental level, where I know of juniors that should be intermediate, and have been performing senior engineering duties over an extended period of time. Their constant inaction and disregard for our internal employee feedback system is the reason I am writing this. - Toxic mentality of assigning "functional Leads" for extended periods of time (10 months+) without consideration of promotions until their yearly performance reviews stating that it is policy to only consider promotions once per year - while soliciting external talent at similar levels at any time through the year. - They ignore their own definitions of engineering levels as well as past experience in the field when performance reviews are conducted - even when its transferable. To grow a knowledgeable engineering skillset, a company must VALUE their technical assets that have demonstrated that they are willing to go above and beyond, and in return will receive the full productivity of HAPPY employees that dedicate their professional lives to making the company thrive - it is a symbiotic relationship. - Small engineering team worked to death. They use employee's mental health as a litmus test for workload, which is evident in all levels of engineering from juniors to seniors. The constant "do more with less" attitude is great when engineers are able to go home and not worry about making rent/paying bills, but not here. This drive has killed most of the morale that the department used to have. - Pay for engineers here is quite low. You are paid on average $12k+/year less than an average starting salary for an equivalent title (src: EGBC, and my salary) than other similar engineering titles. They use the excuse that they contract a company to analyze aerospace company salaries across Canada and return an above average salary - except these companies they compare against are small like KF and other MRO shops and do not do the scale or scope of projects that Cascade engineers work on. If compared with any other aerospace company that endeavours into complex work, our salaries are laughable.