Fast Consistently Refuses to Modernize or Listen to Employees - Implementation Consultant Fast Enterprises Employee Review

Where to start? I'd like to preface this with saying that I was with fast for about 2.5 years and my experience doesn't reflect all Fasties but for the most part these are pretty common complaints. --Management consists of anyone who's been around for 5+ years. This results in engineers that have no interest (or skill) in managing a team. They try to frame this as "no micro-managing" but getting actual guidance feels like pulling teeth. --Overall company structure is very very flat this means several things: 1. Absolutely no room for growth.An IC that has not been pushed into a team role can have the same title for years, without any concrete title change to prove that they are increasingly valuable to the company. 2. The culture in general is VERY hierarchical, meaning that you are only as good as how long you've been with the company. I had a sr member of management tell me that I "wasn't a person" until I'd been with the company for a year. This also ties into the fact that the job takes so long to learn because nobody is really willing to help newbies (and if they are, they're probably already massively overworked). If your experience is anything like mine you will be constantly reminded of how busy your supervisors are and simultaneously how much better they could do the work that you're doing. --Getting actual concrete feedback is also next to impossible. My last review lasted 5 minutes. We fill out basic scorecards for everyone on our team but can't see what was compiled about ourselves. Zero transparency --The software is proprietary and not in a field that the general public knows much about, making the finding your next job really difficult. --The software is also really poorly maintained and documented even less, what's even more odd is that people will regard figuring out a dense subsystem as a badge of honor but won't take the 2 hours to actually comment out their code. It's honestly bizarre. --Speaking of the software, you will essentially be "developing" data hooks on a UI that was built in the mid aughts. This is not the right job for you if you're interested in front end or back end or UX/UI or even database management. --I also would not suggest this job if you're interested in consulting, you will get zero experience in project management, managing expectations, even leading a meeting. Just doesn't happen. -- Clients are an absolute mixed bag, I have had some lovely, capable clients with fast and some that were rude, unmotivated and sexist. If you are lucky to have one of the latter, you have to advocate for yourself because management does not care (notice a pattern here?) --Management absolutely refuses to modernize and will hide behind the reasoning that they want to stick to the standards set by the state (and varies between sites) BUT this probably means that: 1. You will be most likely using expired equipment that can't really handle what you need to be running to do the job. 2. Communication is carried out in email only, absolutely no collaboration anywhere else. 3. Management will not even entertain a discussion about working from home post-covid. Not only that but they plan on continuing to move employees to different sites with very little notice. This is absolutely the opposite direction that the industry is moving in. 4. The company refuses to take any "political" stance, so there was absolutely no communication regarding racial justice, no internal diversity initiatives. --Moving is terrible. I knew that I would be moved when I signed up so this is my fault. Before you accept an offer from Fast, ask yourself if you'd be okay with being moved to the opposite coast while you accrue PTO so slowly that it will take 6 months before you can take a week off to go home. --Relatedly, PTO is far below industry standards.