Working for FAST means giving up your freedom. The work-life balance is a complete joke. That is not an exaggeration and it is certainly not the case with normal jobs. I know this because I have one of those normal jobs now.
FAST wants you to work 60+ hour weeks. FAST wants you to plan on not having a weekend. FAST wants you to feel guilt if you're not working as hard as you possibly can, for as long as you possibly can.
You have almost no free time working for FAST. You will gain PTO that you will almost never be allowed to use. There is almost always some excuse to deny PTO. I had a PM who was considering denying all PTO requests for Thanksgiving and Christmas if we couldn't hit certain milestones. I met a few colleagues whom had years worth of banked PTO, which they knew they'd never get approved if they tried to take some of it off. I've heard from others that FAST is starting to roll back PTO benefits even further, as their coverage continues to wear thin. It is not a good sign for the future of the workforce.
even if there aren't traditional corporate structures, there is a very traditional top-down power structure. There are feedback channels but these are ignored and viewed as a nuisance by the people whom they are intended to hold accountable. I've had coworkers, who I was assured were my peers, reject my suggestions on the basis that I lacked experience, despite me being one of about five people in the company that had access to the release in question. You will only get into more meaningful roles if you "play the game": do your time, don't complain, do as you're told, etc. That is the most common way people get ahead in the company. If you want to stay in your role, that's fine; your paycheck will slowly get bigger, but you will not learn or grow as a professional in any meaningful sense. You only learn the FAST product. In the meantime, you'll be moved around and marginalized with very little say in the matter. Some people are OK with that and that's a perfectly valid way to live. I did not end up happy with this after slipping through the cracks.
For me, this imbalance was quite frustrating. The system of incentives led to me working with a lot of team leads who were inept on a technical level and were only in their positions because of their ability to show confidence and work their hands to the bone. I was once asked to do a job that needs two people for the pay of one person because of the "nontraditional" corporate structure, because it wasn't technically a promotion when my team lead quit and they didn't want to reassign any resources , because they wanted to save money. This is the sort of mindset that reveals what sort of company this is.
The non-traditional corporate structure is still a corporate structure, and can still harm you as an individual.
The company can be as decentralized as it wants but that doesn't make a large difference if it still maintains a top-down power structure, in which the only traits that matter are title and length of service. This way of thinking harms the company as a whole and leaves them stagnant, unable to innovate. If you mention what sort of tech stack you're working with at this company, you will get laughed out of technical job interviews and software developer circles.
Trying to find a job using FAST as your only experience is a serious handicap. You learn a lot of useful things in your first 6-12 months but, after that, it's all vapor as far as your next employer is concerned. Their tech is about 10 years behind the rest of the industry. The partners keep coming up with new and shiny ideas, in place of real innovation, to keep clients interested in the same product. The core developers are crunching to deliver on these features, which results in untested and poorly performing software releases that makes the jobs of most of their workforce exponentially harder. Every person I know that still works for FAST, in my same role, works during most of their weekends in a given calendar month, as a direct result of these initiatives. FAST spends a lot in R&D for their own proprietary tools and refuses to bring any tech in from the outside. It is a very outdated mindset in the industry at large and is deeply frustrating for the people being asked to carry the work out.
FAST does not want your ideas. They want your output, not your input. They do not hire young workers because of their fresh perspectives.
Workaholism is common and I believe it is being encouraged. Extreme dedication is rewarded with promotions and bonuses. There is incredible pressure to perform at all times. People, that I would say are workaholics, are often pointed to as model employees, and are often appointed to managerial roles, aspiring to climb a corporate ladder, one that recruiters insist does not exist. It does, it just looks differently than at companies that have clear and established structures, and usually feature junior and senior developers/engineers unlike FAST.
Working for FAST kneecaps your career.
It doesn't matter if you want to be a Developer, DevOps, DBA, QA, Software Engineer, etc. I promise you will not learn the skills you seek at FAST. Not even close. They will give you the information you need to do your job and nothing more than that; FAST does not care about continuing education whatsoever.
It also didn't really feel like they cared about most of their workers altogether. The huge benefits package and luxurious parties are really just excuses for your manager to treat you like garbage.
While I was working for FAST, I was constantly stressed out. I was unhappy, irritable, and did not feel fulfilled in my life at all. On the few days off I did have, I didn't spend them doing much of anything because my mind and body were exhausted from the previous week. It felt like I was constantly trying to catch up on sleep but it was never enough.
After leaving FAST, I feel like a completely different person. I feel much more relaxed, mindful, and upbeat. The start of a new day isn't a daunting thought hanging over my head. The company I work for now is open to my insights and ideas so I feel overall valued as a person. My time off, including weekends, weeknights, and vacations, actually feels like time off that I can use to spend time with friends, family, and my hobbies. This should be the norm, not an exception. I never felt better the day after I quit FAST.
You shouldn't have to sacrifice years of your life to achieve basic respect between you and your workplace. FAST would have you believe the opposite. That's really the main problem.
