Pros
Experience in Big Pharma is a good resume-builder, besides that your coworkers are the only driving force that get you through the day.
Cons
Zero managerial guidance (your boss is more of an ambassador between you and the client instead of an actual manager) and an utter absence of professional development (the best you’ll get is a lean training that’s only put in place so the contractors can get a good idea of “eliminating waste” for the client, or an occasional call-in on a generic subject like “service,” but nothing to actually advance your career that a good corporation would do for its employees). Pay is beyond pitiful, legitimately the starting salary is the equivalent of a store manager at a video game store. A rational, experience-based promotion scheme is nonexistent, so if you’re lucky enough to actually get promoted, you’ll receive a hefty 50-cent hourly raise. No joke, they train managers to say “maybe you should negotiate your rent with your landlord” if an employee brings up that they’re unhappy with their salary. The client you work for for most of your 40 hours per week treats you as though you’re less than garbage, and as such, you usually are tasked with doing other peoples’ work and getting absolutely no credit for it, or even better, doing odd jobs that no one else wants or cares to do. Management only cares about appeasing the client. If your advancement is in the way of that happening, then you will be pushed aside and/or reprimanded for “rocking the boat” if you try to bring up the fact that you’re unhappy with your situation. Half of the work you do is something that a high school graduate or a GED-holder could do. Also, none of the work that the client “allows” you to do is intellectually challenging, and once you train on everything (which takes very little time to do), there is absolutely nothing else to learn, and you will be doing routine testing over...and over...and over again. The client cares more about one of the lamp posts on their site than they care about you, so they end up taking months just to give you an ID card, access to their site, an area to do work (you aren’t worthy enough for a desk), etc.
