Pros
First and foremost, this company is a great place to start a career in biotech. They don't drug test, they hire anyone that has the on-paper credentials regardless of basically any other factor. If the management likes you, your average workday will be a breeze. I can't speak about other departments but several of the lower-level managers were quite pleasant and easy to work with.
Cons
Firstly, the pay. They offer a promotional scale that increases several times during your first 9 months. Not everyone receives them, and those that do don't always receive them on time. At one point in attempt to stop an employee exodus already underway the raised everyone's pay to the same flat rate- making assistants, laboratory technicians of varying levels, and even R&D employees to all make the same wage regardless of shift or experience. While the wage was fair for entry-level work, paying experienced technicians a wage that can't pay for the average rent in the state the company is located in is frankly insulting. At one point there were administrators working entry-level positions for overtime because they needed the money. Never have I heard of someone in that position being paid so poorly they needed to take a second internal job to pay the bills. Management is caddy- if they like you, you'll spend hours chatting away with your superiors about whatever you'd like. However, if they don't like you, they'll discuss your performance with other employees and intentionally schedule you to do tasks they know you dislike. The break room is very poorly maintained, and food will often sit for weeks or even months before anyone disposes of it; I stopped eating lunch inside the building out of fear of uncleanliness. People steal your food and throw away your break items; it's happened to me multiple times. HR is utterly unhelpful. I've had to submit my diploma, transcripts and vaccination information multiple times because they lose the forms. I had to remind them of raises I was overdue for and never received retroactive payment for the hours I should have been paid a higher wage for. There have been allegations (and I emphasize I only know them to be allegations) that several male employees have harassed several female employees during my tenure. None of the male employees have been disciplined to my knowledge, and most of the female employees that launched complaints ended up leaving shortly after. I can't speak for certainty on anything related to this, but none of it sits well in my soul. Lastly, "employee appreciation" is singlehandedly the most arbitrary term at MDL. There is no shift differential for working overnights (which HR will lie to you upon hire and tell you there is. It's a 45 minute lunch with 15 minutes paid on 10 hour shifts instead of a 30 unpaid on 8 hour shifts. Not a differential.) When I first started, first and second shift had catered food every day and third shift got whatever was left. Eventually that petered out, and we had virtually nothing for almost a year until our end-of-the-year holiday party. Except we were given 45 minutes at the holiday party, and only certain shifts had the ability to attend. There was an enormous raffle with tons of gifts, and again only certain employees had the ability to go. So, while my coworkers were winning immersion blenders, TVs and air fryers, the rest of us were stuck receiving nothing but work. I'm sure it was good fun for a lot of people, but it left everyone unable to attend feeling very bitter and even less appreciated than we felt before. They give a (meager) holiday bonus at the end of the year to anyone that hadn't been written up, but they also witch hunt everyone to write up as many people as possible to avoid the payouts. Related to COVID, there is no emergency or hazard pay for those that work with COVID. There are no guaranteed bonuses or incentives. There are no shift differentials (except for weekend/swing shifts.) When the "here" fell off the "heroes work here" sign we had in the parking lot, so it just read "heroes work".... well... if that's not the truth. All in all, if you JUST graduated and didn't do any internships, toss an application in here. Work here for six months and jump ship for something better. The experience is invaluable, but your ability will be better utilized in a company that invests in you the way you invest in it.