Pros
Both Hardick and Fehnel are good bosses, and fine people to boot. I enjoyed working with the folks I met.
Cons
Carpenter Technology is now run by hired/outside masters of business administration (MBA) instead of engineers and sales people that rose through the ranks. These people have no idea what they are doing. Alloy manufacture is a long lead time process, and is not well suited to the Toyota Production System, 6 Sigma, and other systems that are intended for large numbers of widgets per day. When the pandemic hit, these MBA's decided to use the Jack Welch (of GE infamy) method, and just started cutting. Instead of using the people they had to fix long-term technical problems that had been back-burnered for years because Carpenter was running at maximum capacity of orders, they decided they didn't need a cadre of experienced, skilled engineers and technicians. So when you start work there, you can expect 1) a really steep learning curve because they are still using software from the 1980's 2) lots of small but important tasks to cover for these systemic problems that remained unfixed because that would have reduced profits 3) be expected to fix these systemic problems during your (non-existent) free time 4) to be paid just barely middle class salary considering the cost of living in Reading where housing is a an extreme premium.
