Pros
Quiet work area. Generally clean facilities. Relaxed management social mentality. Illusions of success are only held by upper upper management meaning everyone knows how bad it can get so you're not alone when days get ugly. It's only for 40 hours a week and doesn't extend into the weekend. It's a job that exists and pays just enough to live on and grow enough to leave within 2 years. Strong life lessons and a re-evaluation of what your time is worth is provided. Decent amount of vacation time.
Cons
Pay is about 1/2 to 1/3 average position pay below the Program Management Level. On Boarding is terrible and gives very little time for spool up or real training. Most of the training material si either taken directly from customer or is outdated and missing sections. No one has a back bone when enforcing legal contracts with customers. Work is scarce yet still expected to be 100% "billable". Internship/Co-op program was given priority over infrastructure fixes. Acquiring access to basic and essential tools/programs takes beyond an acceptable amount of time for any business. Outsourcing to India is placed as priority 1 for all commercial work so all the work being accomplished that is consistent and reliable will be shipped over seas for cheaper quality and price. Customers treat you like dirt and take criticism and advice like they were just slapped in the face regardless of how it's presented. Team Leads overreach their job responsibilities insisting on pushing ideas to the side for their own goals yet fail to provide any basic direction or coordination. There is a distinct lack of care or enforcement for export control compliance and education, thankfully as of this post no escapes but there is little effort placed in re-upping the notice. ACE compliance is a joke and the failed QCPC process and 0 compliance on the part of providing any kind of PVD board info or area owners shows it. There is little to no room for growth beyond your entry level unless someone leaves and is not filled immediately by a hired individual. Raises are based on a bi-yearly system that does not account for hiring date meaning you can be hired in June and see an entire 2 years pass without a raise because of when the evaluation date is scheduled while someone hired in May will be raised up after only 1 year. There is clear favoritism and "cliches" that form mostly as coping mechanisms for the "hurry up and wait" schedule for work. Career advice tends to be long the lines of "put your year to year and a half in and move on to (customer)". Vacation time is meant to be paralleled with customer shut downs yet not enough floating holidays and scheduled vacation time is allotted to cover all of the customers days, meaning you have to buy into more time (docked from pay) just so you don't have to sit in an empty office sending e-mails to people who are out of the office. Working there It shows a very bad light on how the customers treat their suppliers, and working at QuEST tends to show the uglier side of cooperate work without breaking any legal rules such as harassment or basic corruption. You will leave work relieved that the day is over and you can go home only to wake up every week day dreading dealing with customers and impossible work requirements until it's the weekend or you quit.