Pros
The idea of the "bread and butter" product is excellent. Providing the tactical communication network solution to the service members is a huge upgrade to the battlefield. I have talked to many service members (a mix of boat and plane people) outside of work to give them an overview of what the company does. They are stoked to see if/when their unit will get the Core Box. -Get the DOD vibe without worrying about big companies (i.e., Lockheed, Boeing, etc). You can still interface with the more prominent companies but avoid getting pigeonholed into one program or project. You get to become a jack of all trades... - You get to know your co-workers very well since there are four, even sometimes five people, in one cube space. Plus, some people coordinate game night or after-work socials or even start to nerf wars in the office -Animals are allowed in the office (sometimes a pro, sometimes a con) - I guess the food provided in the office was a pro (depending on who you talk to about false motivators)
Cons
This is a longer list than the Pros, which needs to be in order. I am not a disgruntled former employee; I generally enjoy my time. In addition, this list is not everything I experienced, heard from others, or seen in passing, just ones I could remember -Cheap. This comes in many more ways than one. One of them is based on tools. Suppose you are on the Hardware/system team or the production team. Good luck trying to get the tools you need to complete your job. I brought in my tools from home to complete the project on time and knew that the production team had used the wrong tool to provide a finished product. This goes for software as well. I had to make do with subpar software and waiting months to get a software license to perform my day-to-day job, fighting over why we needed the software in the first place, often sharing a single CAD and Simulation license between 3-4 MechEs. Need some new hardware because the project requirement has stayed the same, and you don't have time to order some from McMaster? Just drive down to the hardware store and pay for it yourself because you get 1000 questions if you ask for the company credit card. Don't worry. It will take 3-4 business weeks for you to get reimbursed. - Work-life balance (or work-life integration). Depending on the time of year, you may be working 60-70 hours a week to meet a deadline set under an unrealistic timeframe. There were many times I was run into the ground trying to meet a deadline when given poor time notice, where eventually I would stop working at 40 hours a week when I had a manager ask me, "Are your salary or hourly... Salary... good then you can work more than 40 hours to get all my stuff to me" now granted, I was working one full-time job and 2 part times during my time of employment so I couldn't give more time to project, not that I was lazy or unwilling to help out. You will regret it if you don't set your expectations at the beginning of your employment. Nepotism: If you know one of the senior managers or directors, you can get a job whenever you want at the drop of a hat; text them and bypass the entire interview process. Minimal qualifications are acceptable; the other people will train you on what to do. A handful of "interns" are the nephews/nieces, sons, etc., who show up one day. - Giving individuals the title "engineer" without an engineering background or degree. An example is giving a janitor the title "Sanitation engineer." I'm not saying that Janitor doesn't provide quality work; They do, and they do their part to help the company, but you can't just give someone the title of engineer when you feel like it (ESPECIALLY IF THEY DONT HAVE AN ENGINEERING DEGREE). There are some protected engineering titles within C.A., like a mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, etc, that are reserved only for people who have their Professional Engineering License (Per the California Professional Engineer Act Laws) -Be prepared to work 2-3 above your job description while staying put in your pay scale (i.e., level 1 is expected to complete level 3 work); you could be killing it for your reporting period and performing well above your SMART goals and just get a handshake or maybe even a single luke-warm beer (Silver Bullet). Depending on your role, even if you are going above and beyond, you may be told you still need to show more even to be considered for a promotion. Without naming any names, as I don't want to be accused of defaming them, there are some individuals, ranging from higher management to individual workers, who make the work environment very uncomfortable. They will constantly make weird and creepy comments or touch/grab people, thinking that many people don't see or hear what is happening. They see it as cute or harmless, but it is beyond unprofessional. - Do you like breathing in the dusty, dirty, and spores from wood pallets? No? The entire office is made of them, and it is about one electrical outlet fault away from burning the building down. But hey. They look fantastic; don't touch them wrong, or you will get a splinter. Also, running and interweaving a daisy chain of electrical cords through these pallets is a massive no-no in terms of fire protection engineering (not my opinion, expert opinion coming from a licensed fire protection engineer) - The company claims that it is productized. As one of only 3 MechEs working in the company, working heavily on the bread and butter, none of it productized. It is a highly advanced prototype. Looking at the definition of "productization," most stuff within this company is not easily repeatable. There is no standard process for building anything in production. It is coming off the memory of the production team to make the cables, electronic assy, etc. From what I have seen, no work instructions were present during the assy process, which sparked a quality inspection review on mechanical designs after products failed or were returned for failure. It was eventually shown that there was a lack of following the work instructions and that everything was fine with the mechanical design. - I hope you are a wizard, so you know how to bend or break the laws of physics. Several times, I was asked to defy the laws of thermodynamics to make a product survive on the XYZ platform. Even after 4 MechEs and two thermal management specialist companies provide expert analysis saying a process wasn’t going to work, I was told we were wrong. You still need to figure it out. This went on for about a year. This project alone made me doubt my engineering experience (B.S., MS, PhD Student, P.E. License, almost a decade of experience) when I was told that the research, calculated numbers, which were verified by several others, and even physical testing were all wrong and asked repeatedly asked why can't I make it work. Layoffs. When the projects start to slow down or when they promise a project start date that never comes, you can expect layoffs to happen. It happened several times while I was there, and even a few after. In addition, Don't tell the entire company they decided to leave themselves and are moving on to a better place when you laid them off, and we watched it happen.
