Liberal time off, yet long hours and questionable "engineering" work out of college
Pros
- time off is generous, especially for shift engineering - working a 3/4 day work week makes it easy to take a "week" off and have 10-11 days in a row. You earn one day of vacation each month, one day for each holiday, plus additional day if you work a holiday - you will have more time off than you can use - shift process engineer work is not that difficult - hardly need a BS in Eng to do this, especially with the tasks you will actually do in the fab - lots of OJT provided and some formal class instruction, they teach you everything you need to know as many practices are unique to the company.
Cons
- long hours and nights - shift process engineers work alternating 3 and 4 day work weeks, but rotate to night shift every 2-4 months, and work 12 hour shifts - long days, long nights. The step up from here, first shift engineering, works about 50-60 hrs/week M-F only days AND are expected to be on call 24x7 for manufacturing issues.. have to carry a pager and be available to contact.. tough to ever leave town, difficult work/life balance here - feel like you're married to Micron. - work is done 24/7/365 - Entry level position as shift engineer is dull at times - no real engineering work done, really just fighting fires and doing mundane tasks all day - extra projects with 1st shift are encouraged but the only time is coming in for overtime (salaried=no extra pay) - At least in Manassas, shift engineers are expected to perform at a higher level yet are looked down on by 1st shift.. many decisions are deferred to 1st shift as shift eng doesn't have the tools/knowledge to make higher level decisions without fear of reprocussions from 1st shift/management