Pros
This is a unique place to work, you get hands-on exposure to melting, rolling, blanking, and coining silver and gold. Few engineering jobs offer such a direct connection to the full metalworking process. The technical challenges are interesting, and the small engineering team managed to build tools to document and measure things that had never been tracked before. When things were running smoothly, it felt rewarding to make something tangible and valuable.
Cons
Management is scattershot and deeply inconsistent. Rules are enforced selectively, and favoritism is common for example, some employees were repeatedly late and unsafe for months with no documentation or consequences until their supervisor left. Communication is poor, and engineers are often left out of planning entirely. New or used machines would arrive with no notice or consultation, and we were expected to hook them up and commission them in days, even when proper procedures would take weeks. Workload was extremely heavy for such a small team. We got to the point where we didn’t have the electrical capacity or infrastructure for new equipment because processes were planned without coordination. Priorities changed daily, making it impossible to complete projects. From the outside, it looked like engineering “wasn’t getting anything done,” but in reality, we were constantly being redirected. Safety is also a major concern. Many operators are afraid to report issues due to fears of retaliation, and smaller hazards go unaddressed until they become serious. The culture operates like a “good old boys club,” where accountability depends on who you know rather than what actually happened. Despite talk about employee growth, management treats people like disposable parts, replaceable rather than worth developing. Promises about meaningful focus or improvement opportunities rarely materialize. The result is burnout and resentment. Engineers and operators routinely miss holidays and family time to make up for poor planning, yet there’s no accountability for those who caused the problems in the first place especially when they have personal connections with management.