Pros
- The initial pay is good. Benefits are great. - Fast assists you in relocation. I had a good experience with their movers and getting my things moved quickly between states. - There is a possibility to get some good project management or consulting experience from the "Consultant" part of the role. These skills are always transferrable, even if the technical side of Fast is not that transferrable. However, there are some sites where you don't even get to talk to the clients, so it's sort of a coin toss. - They do host nice company events with tasty food - Fast works in a stable industry: government. And Fast seems to have good luck with securing new contracts/projects. I don't think the company will "burn out" any time soon. - Clients are pretty chill - If you are young or a recent graduate, you might find it easier to connect with other Fasties compared to other jobs with more diverse age ranges. However, this can lead to more "cliquey" behaviors and drama. - If you like relocation, this could be a nice opportunity! - Recently they implemented ERG's (employee resource groups). It's still new, but may end up being a great resource for diversity.
Cons
- Fast is going BACKWARDS in terms of remote work. They just mandated a 4-day in office work week for every site. Previously, some sites at least had a hybrid schedule of 2 or 3 days in office. I believe the company will eventually return to a 5-day in office work week for all sites. - The work is proprietary, and it is not transferrable. Yes, Fast has mostly converted their code into C#, but that does not change the fact that most of the code is almost entirely based on existing Fast data structures and classes. Also, no semblance of version control like Git. - Flat structure. You can get "promoted" to team lead but then you don't even get a pay raise. And if you want to be PM, you'll need to devote 7+ years. - Opportunity cost. You can make a good initial salary for the first 3 years, but you will probably be surpassed by non-Fastie peers once they start to use their transferrable skills to job hop or actually promote. - No room for innovation or creativity. You pretty much have to code things in a very certain way to conform to the very rigid coding standards, and government products can be boring. - Lack of diversity. - Relocation, and lack of transparency for each subsequent relocation. - Fasties can be cliquey, and there is more drama than usual. This is because relocation isolates Fasties in a new state, so they tend to just become friends with one another. This can lead to way too much personal life intertwining with work. - Mandatory overtime for active rollouts. Mandatory overtime is a product of either poor management or terrible staffing issues; just because the overtime is paid does not mean it's justified. - Fasties are mostly new graduates that do not know what healthy boundaries with a job are. - Ridiculously small HR team. I believe there are 3-4 HR employees for 2000 employees. This is an issue, especially since we have so many young graduates who do not know what professionalism and respect looks like in the workplace. - Lack of passion and ambition in your coworkers. Unfortunately, many of the Fasties who choose to stay simply don't have passion or ambition for what they do. They stay for the money only. It's a bit demotivating to be around.