Pros
The level 1 agents and team leads are great. Personable and happy to help with issues. If you're looking for a place that offers overtime, Mechdyne will have plenty of it.
Cons
First and foremost, upper management has no great direction for the ITSBU. There is far too much focus on bringing in "the next cool contract" and nowhere near enough focus on making current clients satisfied. Our services would frequently be referred to as the "No Help Desk" by long-standing clients because of the rampant turnover at the level 1 desk. This turnover lead to new agents who weren't familiar with the intricacies within environments. The knowledge base is heavily dated and training moves far too quickly. They are much more concerned with just getting contacts answered then providing quality service to their clients. Part of the rampant turnover issue is tied to pay. Bottom rate pay for a position where you are expected to know and master at least 15 client environments, all using different software and having different policies. If you work weekends or 2nd shift, you will be learning at least 20 environments. All of this while they dangle a carrot in front of your face promising big profit sharing, pay raises, and promotions that don't exist. If there is a single callout, your entire queue will be backed up for the duration of your shift and you can count on being asked for overtime. You will also be harassed about why you haven't followed up on your tickets when you have been in contacts constantly throughout the day. The career ladders are a joke that take multiple months to work through for a meager pay increase (about .25c extra an hour). You move from L1 to SME (Subject Matter Expert, but still just taking contacts) and then you have to sit and pray either a team lead spot opens, or a remote level 2 spot opens (Both of which are infrequent If they do open, they will likely go with an outside hire even though they have qualified candidates who have completed their ladders). Upper management likes to host annual sessions to discuss what's going well, and what is not going well. They expect brutal honesty out of people. When that brutally honest feedback is given, we were presented with excuses on why things had to be that way. So while they like to try to hide under the guise of "we are listening to your feedback," they will make absolutely no effort toward fixing it. I was part of those meetings for 4 years and heard the same exact complaints all 4 years: Knowledge base is bad. We need a better ticketing system. KPIs are unreasonable. Not enough training. We are always backed up with 1 callout. Unresponsive leadership when people need help. No one sticks around. Too many environments being thrown at us too quickly. These were ALWAYS the complaints, and the response is always along the lines of "you just gotta dig into your work and learn how to work through things." Never any actual solutions. Then to top it off at the annual ITSBU check in with Chris Clover, very few of the complaints from agents and NONE from the team leads made it into the presentation. Help desks are notorious for being soul-sucking places to work, and Mechdyne is no exception to that rule. If you are truly desperate for work and just need a place to hang around until a real opportunity shows up, then I guess Mechdyne is an OK option.
