Pros
The environment is laid back, sometimes or for the most part. The IT staff are extremely hard working and take ownership over anything and everything, even when it’s not their responsibility or falls under their job description. You can learn a lot from the senior level engineers and you can also obtain many useful soft skills from the job as well. The benefits are decent. There’s a lot to learn if you’re put in a position that promotes your growth and opportunities are presented to you. There can be many opportunities and vacuums to fill within the company due to high turn over, but only if you show you want to learn, AND you fulfill managements agenda or show them you’re loyal.
Cons
If I said management was poor or needed improvement, I’d be trying to rationalize utterly unethical and toxic behavior. Management has been unsuccessful as far as I can tell since 2014. They’re not helping the company grow, retain customers or employees. I was a returning employee after being convinced by old co workers to come back. I was told there’d be plenty of opportunity and room to grow, and it was true. I enjoyed my work, I was challenged and my manager cared about the team. My first 6 months back were wonderful and full of learning experiences. My co-workers and I were motivated, customers were happy and I was enjoying my time back. But then, two managers were placed as heads over engineering. They fabricated witch hunts while ignoring ongoing problems and inefficiencies between departments that ultimately hamstring service delivery to customers. My manager was transferred to another department, and then terminated without notice after new management fabricated lies about our department. The problem is that when changes are made to platforms and products, or new services are deployed, site changes are made, etc. There are sometimes questions that follow because of the lack of training, documentation and communication. The CEO was apparently told we ask “stupid questions” and “They don’t want to learn.” Situations like this continued extensively, and even more severe. Eventually, 7 employees departed from the company. 5 out of 7 left willingly, and two were terminated. There's quite a bit of "He said / she said" without facts or proof of breaking policy. Management encourages gossip, rumors and quite a lot of backbiting. You'll ask management for advice on how you can improve or areas you could do better in. They'll tell you "You're doing great" with no other input or mentoring. Then you'll find out the CEO was told you have "Time management challenges" by the same manager you asked for input from, according to some individuals in a leadership meeting. It's very strange. Morale is crippled for most employees, customers are unhappy due to service delivery challenges due to resourcing and the real problems are not only being left unresolved, but more are generated due to lack of strategy and planning. More work and accounts are piled on to individuals without incentive like they’re just fodder, while there’s no rush or urgency to hire. I offered to assist other individuals in departments by becoming a site engineer for that particular site in order to learn and assist further, but my manager decided to out source me for a contract to a temporary client for more revenue. I put my two weeks in and resigned after being offered a projects position with another company. There's so much more to elaborate on, but these were the most important.