Pros
Starting pay is somewhat decent. Co-workers are friendly. Adequate parking. Some disciplines within the company are much more competent than others.
Cons
Office morale is extremely low and the environment is depressing. No team atmosphere. No after hour drinks/bonding. High turnover. Management underbids most contracts leaving the stress to fall upon the engineers to get the projects finished in time. The majority of the project managers have little/no experience as an engineer thus making it much harder to have the schedule and budget done correctly. Management will emphasize you to work overtime without pay because this is an employee owned company and doing extra work to keep "our" stock price up should be the insentive. ESOP (their stock program) is a joke and this will be their counterpoint for why not to give you any raise or bonus' you request. Absolutely no room for growth. Training is non-existent. No leadership or mentoring program. Senior engineers, most of which alarmingly lack technical knowledge and are still being promoted, will push work back onto you with little or no help. Blame game is well established here. It is not uncommon to have a project handed to you that has previously been worked on by 2-3 engineers with no hours left, a very disgruntled client and a supervisor unwilling to aide in the completion. Be prepared to have to fight for 40 hours on a weekly basis. Communication is very poor among the entire office. Sleepless/stressful nights are not uncommon. Be prepared to fight management, supervisors and the client. Most projects are micro-managed by management who aren't qualified or have no previous knowledge of the topic. Use this job as a stepping stone to get experience for a year or two and then leave as soon as possible.
