Biggest down side- there are a lot of down sides.
The work itself:
- Can get very repetitive (turbine blades all look the same).
- Analysis only job: customer does the design, you plug it in and show them the results.
- Work breakdown: 50% PowerPoint creation, 30% filling out forms/checklists/reviews, 20% engineering
- Collaboration, teamwork, and knowledge expansion is mostly frowned upon.
Company:
- Contract-based company: every hour worked must be billed or you won't be paid. If work goes over budget (due to poor leadership, organisation, customer interaction, etc.) engineers are still expected to catch up (unpaid) on work.
- Budget for training is non-existent.
- Pay is very low when comparing experience/degree with other similar positions.
- Structure, titles, organization frequently changes.
- Company is largely run by India. Excessive grammatically incorrect communications of all mediums is sent to the employees.
- HR communication is poor; any request takes over a week before a reply is received, as everything must route through an Indian representative.
Other:
- Company morals/ethics very low. Managers are profit driven and will put deadlines/customer demands above all morals. Quality of work suffers and mistakes are frequently encountered.
- Managers have no management background and perform interpersonal duties poorly. Most managers at Quest are Aero-thermal/Project Engineers that have reached the "length of service required" to be a manager, and are therefore promoted.
