All the Reasons You Should Reconsider - Implementation Consultant Fast Enterprises Employee Review

1.0
Jul 24, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+ Very competitive pay, especially straight out of college. + FSRA (Fast’s version of a bonus bank) is great for the first *two* years. + Benefits (fantastic insurance, flexible spending account (employee-funded), three weeks of vacation after converting first 40 hours of overtime first year, paid overtime + 10 paid sick days that you can pretty much use whenever +/- Coworkers are generally pretty cool + Fully paid relocation

Cons

I will do my best to encapsulate all the reasons I dislike my position. - Fast is an archaic company. It is a dead end for CS people looking for a first or second job out of college. There entire backbone is written in VB.Net, a language that pretty much died in the mid-2000s. Terminology includes things like “BOs” (a VB.Net class), “FDAs” (Fast’s “proprietary” data structure), and “SQRs” (Fast’s version of a ticket or service request). - Everything. Is. Proprietary. Proprietary scheduling and employee management system. Proprietary code versioning system. Proprietary naming standards. Proprietary project management system. Unless you’re on “tech team” (where you learn some valuable DBA stuff), a PM, or an architect, almost everything you live and breathe is proprietary to Fast. I’m not sure if this is to intentionally limit employee’s marketable abilities, or if it is part of an obsession to remain an all-inclusive solution for government agencies. - “Rollout,” the super busy points in active projects, suck the life out of almost everyone, as many people work 60+ hours per week for up to eight months depending on the situation. When things are busy, there is absolutely zero consideration given to work-life balance. Fast pays overtime, so rather than staffing projects with the correct number of resources, they bank on people working themselves to death in exchange for overtime pay (and no, it is not time and a half). - Work-life balance. Going off the above point, your work-life balance will wither during busy times, and your management will not do anything to alleviate that. As a matter of fact, “work-life integration” — i.e. encouraging people to have as few responsibilities outside of work as possible in order to keep up with the demands of the project — is Fast’s answer to helping employees succeed when the going gets tough. - Hazy/drinking culture. I can’t speak for all projects, but at ours, senior management picks out certain people to make fun of on projects. Although harmless most of the time, I have had coworkers who have been rubbed the wrong way from jokes circulating through email or vocal communication. I find that to be unacceptable, inappropriate, and unbelievably immature, especially when instigated by ***senior*** management. Additionally, all the fun is based around drinking. If you love to drink at every work-sponsored event, I suppose this is a plus. - Bogus bonus system. Fast starts most out with a $20,000 reward account. Every year, employees get 25% of the balance in this account. Fast will make deposits into this account for “exceptional performance,” but those deposits are rarely more than $1,000 (per year) for non-senior employees. So, basically, every year you’re with the company and become more valuable, your yearly bonus gets smaller. Makes sense! - Bad, bad, bad retirement contributions. No 401k matching. Instead, Fast does profit sharing. This is rarely more than 3% of your base salary and its takes FIVE YEARS to fully vest. According to Fast, they do this instead of matching in order to contribute to employee retirement even if the employee does not contribute themselves. To me, it seems like employees that proactively invest in their retirement should be rewarded by matching, not punished for it with bad profit sharing that takes five years to vest. Overall, I cannot recommend this company. If you’re fresh out of college and want to learn some programming skills to get your feet off the ground and drive your base salary up, it wouldn’t be a bad choice for 1-2 years. Do not stay longer, or you won’t leave, and if you do, your knowledge of BOs, FDAs, and all of Fast’s proprietary architecture will make recruiters wonder what you bring to the table. If you’re a CS major, don’t work here. Get a job somewhere, even if it pays less, and learn marketable skills. You’ll be making more in less than five years than the majority of “Fasties,” and you probably will have saved months of your life that would have otherwise been consumed by overtime.

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Fast Enterprises Response
6y
It is clear FAST is not a fit for you, and no one is forcing you to stay. Be honest about what has kept you here, as it reflects your priorities and your value to the job market. It is also clear that you are not interested in respectful or constructive discussion that can lead to improvements in the company. We encourage you to take responsibility for your own career and find a position where you feel fulfilled rather than bitter. On “transferable skills”: We want people who are committed to staying at FAST long-term. FAST is a family. We want smart people with integrity, strong work ethic and a sense of loyalty to stay here. We are not in the business of training employees to be “marketable” for their next job, no company is. The only organizations that define success by what people do after they leave are schools. FAST trains its staff to use technology to improve the way governments work for the citizens they serve. FAST trains its staff to help people through organizational and technological change. FAST trains its staff to communicate and work as a team with others of disparate backgrounds. FAST trains its staff to adapt to a variety of ever-changing challenges. We want people who have these skills and appreciate they are universally valuable. The technology we use and tools we’ve developed are intended to make new employees as productive as quickly as possible, to help meet the high demand for our services while we continue to recruit aggressively to expand our workforce. On “drinking culture”: Drinking is a personal choice that is not a prerequisite for any benefit or advancement within the company. No social activities are—not playing on a team together, not hiking together, not having dinner together, not doing charitable works together. The more people do together socially, the more they tend to like each other. The more they like each other, the happier they tend to be at work. We’re sorry you couldn’t find any other ways to have fun with your coworkers. The people we look for can find a way to be themselves while still forging the relationships that make for a positive work experience. If you feel “hazed”, we suggest you reach out to HR or a Partner to address. On FSRA or “bonuses”: FAST doesn’t use FSRAs to reflect additional years with the company. That’s what annual salary increases are for. In fact, FAST’s average annual salary increase for its employees exceeds industry averages. FASTies get an FSRA on top of their salary increase when they exceed expectations. But of course, with more experience, comes higher expectations. So in your situation if your FSRA has decreased, it’s because over time you met/fell short of expectations more than you exceeded them. This of course will be different for each employee, for each year. On 401K: We evaluate these programs yearly and at this time we do profit sharing so that all employees regardless of their ability to contribute, can be rewarded through this account via FAST’s contribution.

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