Pros
Good place to start for a young college graduate who has an interest in cyber security since you work with numerous industry standard SIEMs. Free food every Friday. Most peers you will work with are somewhat approachable/good people, but are burned out.
Cons
Majority of the employees I knew were very unhappy as they see this as a dead-end job and are clearly overworked. Work life balance does not exist here. You will work 9+ hour shifts with little or no time to take a break or get coffee. Employee's overall well being and dire need for hiring more analysts are neglected, when the company only cares about onboarding more customers and GreyMatter. The month long training provided (claiming training costs $20,000 per analyst) emphasizes the RQ culture/indoctrination and truly does not prepare you for your daily tasks, so you will be pinned with the responsibility of showing new employees the ropes along with tackling a very hectic day. You will either work in bulk SIEM rules content pushed that triggers numerous false positives, or work vague alerts that triggers based on 1 to few log event(s), then write up a full analysis that the customer does not bother reading knowing it is utter garbage (many of which pay millions per year for 24/7 eyes on glass service). The idea of "No Show Dogs" is a bunch of BS since you have to slave away hard or be a show dog to even get the slightest amount of recognition. You will get no form of appreciation or acknowledgment for the effort you put into your work or what you try to contribute to the shift, as your time is clearly not respected. You will have to sacrifice your entire personal life and mental/physical health to further advance the company. Speaking up or expressing concerns is grounds for termination and you will be dealt with. When you do come across management/shift leads during one-on-ones, some of them can be very condescending, as their approach is the my way or the highway mentality (one-way conversation telling you what's what, rarely a two-way conversation). They never give positive feedback, only focus on the negatives with no constructive criticism. When you discuss burn out or the truth during a one-on-one with your shift lead, they shift the blame towards you and then take what was said during that meeting by backstabbing you amongst their peers and your coworkers. You will officially then be blackballed and labeled as an enemy of the state. At the end of the day, some of these shift leads seem to not have their pod's best interest, but are more concerned with impressing or brown nosing their superiors to prove their worth (attempt to bribe you with pizza to get you to do BS/trivial tasks). Some cases, managers or shift leads either left work to buy alcohol or ran off with their inner circle of friends to go watch a movie, leaving the shift behind to fend for themselves (left work at 8 PM or 9 PM, while you worked until 12 AM or 3 AM). They then have the gall to call you out about not being accountable, adaptable, helpful, or focused in their eyes, claiming themselves to be exemplary. You will then be micromanaged to a tee as they will passive-aggressively call you out via email, chatroom, in meetings, or even texting you when you are off work. You will also deal with the political/culture game (A.K.A. The RQ Way) as management/shift leads tend to play favorites with certain cliques (those that drink the Kool-Aid or brown nose) in your shift or gossip/patronize their subordinates. There is really only so much growth as a SOC analyst at RQ after a year's time (work alerts/tickets for 9+ hours each shift), which is pretty much embraced by upper management. Either analysts wake up and realize there are no further opportunities and go elsewhere, quit because they cannot tolerate working there anymore, are fired for standing up for what is right, or completely give in their self-respect or integrity. Going to work every day and developing within your career can be overwhelmingly strenuous or taxing when you work in a very toxic work environment such as here. The pay may be worth it initially, but it is not worth all the stress you will endure.
