Pros
Fantastic team of engineers; everyone is very down to Earth; small team environment, so nobody is a specialist and everyone wears many hats. I've learned a lot in a very short amount of time. At the Gilbert location, the entire production chain was on-site, where you get to see the product being built from the ground up. Smaller company also means there is less bureaucracy compared to larger corporations, allowing for quick decision-making. The leaderships at the Gilbert location are also very approachable and supportive.
Overall, I really enjoyed working at ATSC IES at the Gilbert location. I especially appreciated the grad school lab atmosphere in some parts of the company, where there were tools, parts, gadgets, benches, and hands-on testing areas-perfect for engineers who love working in an experimental setting. Watching numerous pieces being welded together and transformed into a finished product was truly fascinating. Coming from a larger company where I was highly specialized in one specific area, it was refreshing to take on a more generalist role, where everything I did was new to me and I had to do a lot of research to understand how to solve the problem. This made the work more challenging, dynamic, and fulfilling as I gained a much broader skillset in a short time.
Cons
Small company with limited resources so the test equipment can be limited,
At a small company, resources are limited, so is the staffing. Sometimes the deadlines can seem very daunting given the small size of the team.