Better-than-average bodyshop
Pros
- Relocation assistance (plane tickets for you and your family, compensation for overweight luggage fees, a month of extended stay hotel and a car rental, 1 year interest-free loan) - Green card application process exists and is known to finish successfully (albeit you have to wait for 1 year to start the process and it takes about 3-4 years to complete it if no significant delays have been encountered) - As a contractor - you have access to some of the perks regular employees of EPAM's clients (e.g. Google) provide - free food, parking, laundry in the office, etc. - Good benefits package - insurance (including eye and dental), H1B matching (up to 2%), free English classes - Great (and competent) people working with you on the project - usually L1/H1 visa holders tend to be qualified or overqualified for the tasks at hand - so you can savor moments of working with smart people - You are still being paid "on bench" while the company is finding a new project for you - if your previous project ended. You can use this time as a quasi-PTO (although you are not expected to do so) - You can progress to middle management rather quickly - although this does not necessary mean that you will get significantly more money
Cons
- You work for a bodyshop - so the projects you will be working on are either too boring or too inconvenient for regular employees of EPAM's clients. Be prepared for unusual schedules, meaningless support busywork, legacy support etc. - You work for a bodyshop - your salary is limited not by your contribution or by your actual market value - but by the sum of money the client is paying for your position. Business is business, do not expect them to lower their profit margin to give you more money. And also expect to have less than competitive salary (in comparison to product companies that are currently hiring) - Review process happens twice a year - but is completely opaque - you do not know what you need to do to get a rise. Goal setting is useless, change of grade does not necessary mean that you are entitled for a promotion. Participating (for free) in EPAM's internal projects is expected to maximize the chances of a rise. Having an offer from another company helps too though. - You work for a bodyshop - be prepared for "we do what we are paid for" approach - if the customer wants you to mop floors - you will end up mopping floors. Management is usually not able to (and not willing to) argue with the customers regarding this. - You are "exempt" employee - so no such thing as "overtime" exists for you, you work as much as needed to complete your tasks. You can get some payments or other forms of reimbursement though, depending on the project and management - You are usually left alone after getting assigned to a project - if the client is not complaining - you will have little to none communication with your management. Any conflict with the client is almost automatically decided in favor of the client though. - Be prepared for significant turnover of people - expect that 80-90% of your colleagues on the project will leave shortly (3-6 months) after getting the Green Card.