Pros
There are no pros with this company but plenty of cons.
Cons
This company has so many cons, so it's really hard to know where to start. L'Garde promises interesting projects in support of other companies & government agencies. All these promises are empty. As a staff engineer you are tasked with meeting impossible schedules with minimum budget because the promises management has made were lies that you need to make into reality. No, problem if you can't make this happen. You have to come in and work for free during all weekends and holidays when you are already paid very low. L'Garde's directors are not interested in you at all. They only care about themselves and what type of cars they drive. Work/life balance doesn't exist. Everyday I come to work I have to be prepared for the mood CEO and COO are for that day. Did they have a fight with somebody today? Did a customer cancel a project? Are they happy today? If they are unhappy everybody will hear about it and all employees will be verbally attacked, regardless of what they have done. Over 2 years the company has fired more than half of its staff (more than 15 people). L'Garde's management has no experience in space technology at all or people skills for that matter. They make fun of employees and yell at them. L'Garde has worked with a large number of companies but no company or institution L'Garde has collaborated with is happy because L'Garde files lawsuits against everyone they can, and that for the work they have not done. A simple search of the company name and lawsuit shows results of that. The company occasionally wins SBIRs or grants but can never commercialize products because of the bad business ethics they have towards others and lack of knowledge in this area and others. Recently the company lost the Sunjammer project as NASA cited a lack of confidence in LGarde’s ability to deliver. NASA abandoned plans to fly a solar-sail mission in 2015 after investing four years and more than $21 million on the project. L'Garde's directors have laid off and fired very skilled people because they didn't like them. L’Garde does not have and never had the ability to procure materials and adhesives and many times technicians were forced by the company directors to used expired product. L'Garde's management doesn't have a clue about quality or space qualification and as an employee I feel very uncomfortable that the company uses government funding and frequently uses expired products or fabricated test results. But staff engineers can only take orders from the company directors and it is very clear that these directors don't care about non-conformances whether it is for a private customer or a government agency. The bottom line is that if you consider working for this company my recommendation is that you don't because your reputation will be ruined by unprofessional company directors that do unethical business deals. L'Garde is the most disorganized company I have worked for and I plan to leave it as soon as I can. I have given this company 1 star...but L'Garde deserves nothing more than 0 stars.