Potential applicants deserve to know (revised) - Applications Engineer Essai Employee Review

I think there are a lot of angry reviews about Essai on Glassdoor. In fact, I thought some of the salary entries are made excessively low to discourage people from applying. I didn't think that's an effective way in steering applicants away. But turns out the reviews were accurate. Give them a range at which you'd like to be making and they will offer you 10% below your minimum. (Btw, I didn't know what to do about the sarcastic review written and posted on March 22, 2016. But I've since gone back to read it and it's about 99% true. Just not the napping one. Everything else is spot on.) My experience as an Applications Engineer has been rocky at best. Coming from a non-computer background already put me at a disadvantage. Furthermore, there is very little training. I was reprimanded for not knowing certain internal processes. Basically, it's common for managers to forget to know what they haven't taught you. Essai has an Applications team that act as technical project managers. They also have a Design team that use Solidworks to design, based mostly on templates and previous projects. However, the turnover at Essai is so crazy. I would say the average employee is there for 1.5 years before moving on. If you are looking for experience or to get your foot in the door, then it should be an ok place to start, but not stay. If you're looking for stability, you won't find it here. I've spoken to many engineers and most of them are actively interviewing. As an apps engineer, the final say usually comes down to my manager's approval. And it's very common for design changes to be based on arbitrary preferences and not engineering considerations. I've also experienced it when designers were asked to do a dramatic redesign, then later change it back to what it was before. And the blame usually gets dropped on the designer either for not noticing a "problem" early or causing a delay that was actually initiated by this change - then - change - back business. Very inefficient but very common. Overall I think Essai's problem is that they are being caught in a downward spiral. When they fail to retain the invaluable resources (senior level designers or apps engineers), the burden falls on the less experienced, who aren't rewarded for their effort. New employees are hired to fill the void, but each subsequent "generation" gets less training while keeping the same expectations. At one point the company has to collapse. It's unfortunate for the 2-3 long timers who actually do good work. The weight will inevitably fall on them. I was told by my manager today that the company is basically run in a way that treats employees as dispensible. The owners have no hesitation to cut 20-year long relationships once they don't seem valuable. It's a mistake, in my opinion, bleeding out employees like that. In fact, during my time at Essai, I never met the CEO once. He doesn't care to be the face of the company or spur employees on in any way. But at the same time, management expects success that they've had with products and highly visible customers back 5-7 years ago. One day their devaluation of employees with zero raises (one designer who had been there for 3 years told me ... no raise for the entire time there) and other lack of attention to their team will put the company under. In any case, I've thought a lot about what I could write to help applicants to avoid this company if the could. Obviously if you need the experience, you have no choice. Just know that there are better places out there. And many engineers are in the same boat. The support exists! - - - - - - - 2 toilet stalls and 2 urinals for 50+ guys. I've gotten in my car before and driven elsewhere to use the bathroom. - - - - - - - Example from what happened my first month there: - A manager's team leaves the company over the period of a month. - The manager pulls difficult hours to meet a shipment deadline because of the shortage in manpower. - The CEO is aware of this close call. Instead of saying "good job meeting the deadline", he says "don't let this happen again." And adds, - "you can't go on your vacation you have planned. We need you here. If you leave, don't bother coming back." - The manager goes on vacation and never comes back. - - - - - - - So much more to write but I don't want to anymore. I hope you get the point. People aren't treated well here. They're used and then discarded when they don't seem useful anymore. It's not a place to build a career. If you end up getting hired and staying here any significant amount of time, it'll really be a waste of your time and really nobody to blame but yourself. But if you absolutely need the experience, do what you have to do. Get in, get out. But if you have any other option, look elsewhere.