Pros
-Pay is generally above average for the area -Rotational program for the first 2 years allows for new hires with little to no experience to learn different parts of the company. -Young company, most people are 25-35 so good opportunity to make friends and hang out outside of work -Cool projects, lots of new machinery and equipment, hands on work -More diverse than most engineering companies, good amount of women and P.O.C.s
Cons
-No performance based incentive, raises and promotions are all pre-scheduled. (Senior Engineer Promotion at 2 years, Senior II at 3 years, Lead Engineer at 4 years, Lead II at 6 years, after this you largely cap out unless you can get VP approval to be moved up to specialist [minimum 8 years, though most seem to take 10 or more]). Though I have seen a handful of exceptions over my 2 years at the company, almost everyone follows the progression above with no regard for personal performance or individual work load. High performers will do more and be paid the same and advance at the same rate as those that perform the bare minimum to get by. -Little opportunity for advancement into management. (Generally Senior and Lead Engineers are expected to delegate to Rotationals but possess no management authority. Organization is very flat with the structure generally being Engineer>Team Lead>Director>VP. There are only a hand full of Engineering Team Leads, Directors, and VPs and all of these positions are filled by long tenured WI personnel [most team leads are 40+ years old, Directors 50+, and VPs ~60]) -Zero opportunity to work from home, upper management has taken a hard stance against any WFH or Hybrid schedule. VPN access exists but is largely reserved for people out on short or long term sick leave. In my experience, design engineers and a handful of manufacturing engineers were approved for VPN access and were occasionally allowed to WFH rather than use PTO for a sick day but this was largely based on manager discretion and was heavily influenced by favoritism. -Not very "Politically Correct" workplace. Generally true of manufacturing everywhere but I experienced and witnessed quite a few micro aggressions from management (upper and lower) against women and P.O.C. while working in manufacturing here. Management was fairly hot-headed and also had a reputation of creating a somewhat hostile workplace (spontaneously threatening to fire people, belittling and demeaning employees, passive aggressive behavior)