Pros
Taxi fare is claimable, as well as an amount of your phone bill.
Cons
Here we go. Are you an aspiring Helpdesk/Desktop support engineer who's really eager to join an SI so that you can learn more about networks and infrastructure? Did you spot a JobStreet ad stating that this role requires 1 year of experience only, and you're here to read more about the role? Don't join this company then! Let's list out the reasons shall we? 1) Horrible mid-upper management If you attend meetings with the entire IT department, you will be saddled with bleak tones and fear mongering tactics by the upper management. You will be told that clients are ready to drop you at a moment's notice and that you must be thankful for your top notch management that does everything. You will be subject to news of how the economy is bad and that you will be jobless should you leave this company. 2) Engineers are not thanked at all Instead, engineers are sneered at every single meeting. See your colleagues quitting like flies dropping? You will be told that this quitting spree is "seasonal and should be ignored". Oh please, everyone is quitting for the same reason. 3) Massive amounts of OT If you've read points 1 and 2 and still intend to join Stone Forest IT, please prepare to work from 7am till 12am on a regular basis. You will be mocked at by the upper managent if you leave your client's place on time. You will be scheduled 24/7 support regularly for ALL clients. You read that right, all clients. Any single client who calls you at 3.45am; you'll have to pick up that call lest they complain to the upper management who are NOT on your side. I once took medical leave and worked from 7.30am to 8pm. My aging mother had to buy food for me because I had to help clients. I couldn't see the doctor until it was 8.30pm. Think you can ignore your clients and tell them you're on leave or MC? Think again. Clients, for some reason, have your director's phone number on speed dial, and you will be scolded if you don't help out. The upper management will lure you with lucrative offers of "up to $1000 in OT!". Colleagues who've stayed for years could only get a few hundred at most. Don't fall for that trap. 4) Middle management The middle management are supposed to guide you on a technical basis, on how to use certain new hardware or software, or how to implement certain changes. They're supposed to be the technical specialists. That doesn't ring true for some of them. Think you can call a friendly ol' technical manager for help? You will be told, firmly or nicely, to go Google, or utilize YouTube's video tutorials for help. Imagine that, watching a YouTube How-To video while a client is breathing down your neck, with your director's phone number on speed dial. Not feasible at all. 5) Random callbacks/meetings Here's the icing on the cake. You will be frequently called back after 6pm to "help in a project" which you've never been in before. Also, there are frequent meetings that occur after 6pm, whereby everyone is sat down and yelled at. Think you've got a technical question to ask? You will be forced to remote in to your client's infrastructure, where you will be subject to mockery and scoldings by your upper management. After witnessing it once, you will learn to keep your problems to yourself. Think you've escaped scrutinizing for this week? Well, prepare to watch your fellow colleagues get crushed emotionally and mentally then. 6) Trapping techniques Think the offer of free certification and courses are really great? Think again. You will be subject to a bond that costs more than $10,000.00. You didn't read that wrongly. More than ten thousand dollars. The bond ends one year after you've done that vendor's exam and prove you've received certification. If said vendor has 3 exams for one certificate; well that's too bad for you, aspiring engineer. You will be held until you can clear all 3 exams, then endure for 1 year. Or pay MORE than $10,000.00 (MORE than Ten thousand dollars).