Pros
- Travel. As a recent college graduate, I was able to explore many parts of the country I may have never seen otherwise. I could fly home on weekends or if I was nearby to a national park, beach, theme park, etc. I could spend it there with hotel/car/food covered by the company (amusement cost on you). - Exposure to a lot of different useful skills. Early on most FSE will get to see many different types of WWTP designs and get hand on experience with industrial equipment. As you progress on towards commissioning new equipment you will learn a lot about industrial automation/integration and get very good at problem solving and troubleshooting. - Small company. This means there isn't a ton of red tape around getting task accomplished on your own using your best judgement. This also means you will be working alone most of the time and will need to feel confident to make logical decisions. No micromanagement which I enjoyed. You can also speak your mind without worrying. Having a high level understanding of how various pumps work and what applications they work well in, how control loops work, tuning PIDs in the field, the biology and chemistry of wastewater treatment, valve types, sensor types, PLCs, analog vs digital inputs, and the process of selling equipment all the way through construction and commissioning. These are some of the things you can learn at this job which will be valuable moving forward in your career.
Cons
- Travel. Depending on your personal situation the amount of travel could be a negative. Flight delays/cancelations, car issues, etc are also a possibility. - Work load can get very high or very slow at times. Scheduling also gets chaotic with jobs pushing back and emergency issues arising. - I think the pay structure could be improved, to include individual performance based bonuses for good work to incentivize taking pride in your work.