- Unable to negotiate initial wage effectively. Stuck with a low starting wage and there is no room for improvement (< 4% raise a year). Likely my inability to negotiate a higher wage since the job description was so vague.
- Missed raises by TWO WEEKS.. coincidentally they delayed my onboarding by two weeks.
- Unclear business model. They essentially buy engineering "hours" from big companies for less than they'd pay their own employees to do menial tasks. They then "sell" those hours to their own employees and keep the difference. Most tasks involve cutting & pasting from SAP, for hours.. and hours.. and hours.. Cut & Paste.
- HR is nonexistent and regularly unhelpful, likely because they have to pay for HR out of their own pocket and can't bill it to a company.
- Bonus system (PICA - productivity improvements) is very slow, very flawed, and ultimately is paradoxical since saving money on contract hours would ultimately be less profitable as a company. I personally submitted 8 PICAs to be paid out with clear time savings and QuEST dragged their feet so long that none of them in ONE YEAR got paid out.
- Very regular problems with their IPMS > PAYROLL system. On two occasions I was not paid for 40 hours of work (!!!!). In order to clear it up, it took me two weeks to get it on my next check..
- A culture of unwillingness to change, those who have contracts with the largest amount of hours are often found "slacking" and staring at their screen in order to gobble up hours.
- No incentive to move into management or an authoritative position. Being "promoted" to a Team Lead position DOES NOT come with more money. Being a "focal" on a SOW also DOES NOT come with more money. Your workload will increase substantially, but you will not be compensated.
- 2 VACATION DAYS ALL YEAR!! You heard me... TWO.. I still am in disbelief. You have a total of 4 days off a year if you include sick days.
