Specific to Hosting Group: Great place to build technical skills. No Career Growth potential. Poor work/life balance
Pros
- Pay scale is above average for Hosting or outsourcing gigs - Opportunity to round out all phases of your skill set (appications (primarily SAP), DB, OS, HW (except if you get stuck with a client with outdated SW/HW) - Small, business casual office - Some of the most technically talented individuals you will find anywhere - Some flexibility with work arrangements (telecommuting)
Cons
- **ZERO** leadership/project management skills from upper management. - Swings in management styles from completely non-responsive and MIA to micromanaging and petty. Rules change on the fly - Lack of professionalism exhibited by upper management at times - Recognition for good/hard work is lacking - office space is small, dirty. Embarrassing when clients come to visit. Many consultants are forced (daily) to sit in a conference room together because there is a lack of desks/chairs or at best have to share a cube. - Poor project and resource management leads to excessively long work weeks and overlapping projects, unrealistic timelines - makes for a lot of individual and team stress and conflict between teams. Appears to be no real desire, by management, to do anything to change it. - Offshore team is lacking in skills, work ethic and accountability. Often leaving Stateside teams to cleanup the mess and have to explain to the client what happened. Lot's of attempts have been made by consultants and immediate managers to get this fixed. Not only were all overtures ignored, but now we've been told in no uncertain terms that we are not allowed to openly criticize the offshore team or individuals of that team. - Some internal cliques and prejudices are evident in the office - work/life balance goes out the window during project work - hope you're single or have a solid marriage. Among the first words my kid learned was "daddy working" - It's hosting. So, you will be expected to perform hands on HW work (racking,unracking,cabling) all of which is done off hours (in addition to your normal off hour support and/or on-call duties). - lots of red tape, forms, change control tickets, emails, approvals, outmoded home-grown utilities
