The owner is a pompous, short-tempered man with a Napoleon complex.
Pros
Was within a reasonable commuting distance.
Cons
Where do I begin? Company went months upon months without a Human Resources delegate. Then when they hired one, the purge began. The pay is awful. AWFUL!!! I calculated that HPNE pays its engineers about 35% below the market average. The health insurance is a joke. I was billed $435 for imaging AFTER benefits payed their portion. The owner relies heavily on management to run the day to day operations because he doesn’t have a clue on how to do it himself despite sitting behind the same desk for 20 years. There are many different personalities that work at HPNE. I’ve witnessed firsthand the firing of top talent that the owner could never recognize. I’ve also seen employees hide out in areas of the manufacturing area and play on their cell phone; keeping their jobs. The few smart engineers on staff make a miserly wage. These are young guys with graduate school degrees who aren’t, or at least shouldn’t be, dispensable. The reality is that the engineering department was woefully understaffed, causing delinquent deliveries. Since leaving the company there are a myriad of new faces on LinkedIn. If you check out company reviews left by employees on different sites that are positive, they were suspiciously submitted on or about the same day, meaning ownership lobbied the employees to leave positive reviews while under duress. HPNE doesn’t have any direction or magnitude. It’s a three ring circus of people unsuccessfully trying to finish jobs. The quality department is suspect. Product has been deemed conforming by quality even though a second inspection would prove otherwise. “Move the product, disregard customer satisfaction” is the unofficial company motto. To the engineers who work for HPNE, use your experience there as a stepping stone to something better. I can attest that there is far more rewarding work elsewhere that will treat you with more respect and offer you a package a professional would come to expect. I’m disheartened that I wasted my time at HPNE but I’m in a far better place now. Be very weary of HR and ownership. They will terminate you just as quickly as plunge a knife in your back.
