There are many. They advertise "culture" and stress it so much that it's essential viewed as the replacement for your next to nothing pay. It's sad when the industry pays people doing exactly what I was doing a solid 15-20% higher than what I was getting paid. Overworked constantly and if you don't complete things by deadlines it is ALWAYS your fault. You're always the one to blame and take negative feedback from every direction. You will be labeled and seen as incapable of handling your work if you can't complete things on time or hit goals (even if it had nothing to do with your performance). They expected me to do all my work (no matter how unreasonable) and on tight turnaround times, and would question me if I worked over time to get it done. There were nights I did OT and was afraid to code OT hours due to fear of repercussions and feedback of me being incapable of doing the job. Also, certain teams had a MUCH easier work load (and it's pretty unfair how it's broken up to be honest). Culture means next to nothing. There were people who demonstrated the culture and genuinely cared for others who did not get promoted. There were also skilled and talented individuals who were tossed to the side for those who matched their cookie cutter "ideal" manager. They also promoted a lot based on politics. If leadership liked you then you'd be promoted. You'd have to be fake and pretend you buy in 100% to everything TEK. TEK is perfect. I felt I couldn't say a single bad word about TEK or I'd be blacklisted for promotion. Promotion was also only for managerial roles so if you didn't want to be a manager, you'd might as well leave. The Center of Excellence is also bogus, as no one from there ever really got promoted. It's pretty dead-end unless you go the MOS>Senior>RC route. All other jumps are lateral. They were always watching and listening. The environment felt tense as though leadership was waiting for me to slip up. It was hard for me to keep up a facade so I eventually chose to leave.
