Pros
Decent place to start career. You will learn basic QA skills, and get to contract with Silicon Valley clients.
Cons
- Conflicted company vision. Shasta competes with low paying QA companies in other countries, but their self-proclaimed advantage is that they offer a higher level of service (and they are in the same timezone). However, the company also has a self-professed business model that expects employees to remain with the company for 2-3 years, and then move on. There are very few exceptions to this rule. Those who last longer than this are those who can keep their head down and take it. This creates tremendous stress on teams because as soon as someone is trained and up to speed, they are encouraged to leave the company per the company's short tenure philosophy. Then the cycle repeats itself. - The entire company is often times exposed to details of why someone was let go, or, about the latest controversy stirring in the halls. They call it open honesty, but, it appeared upper management felt like they needed to defend themselves, or to try and get buy in to their decision. If after all the meetings and communications about why someone was let go, there were still rumblings about the situation, those people were targeted for further discussions. See next point. - An overall negative and paranoid vibe runs throughout the company. If ownership or management caught wind that someone questioned a decision, or, was not happy with a decision, someone from management would usually be directed to "do a little digging". It felt like they were trying to provoke a reaction from that person. - The company refused to bring on anyone with experience in finance or accounting instead relying on “growing their own”. The result is frequent financial projection inaccuracies and financial mistakes. - There were over 120 company value statements, many of which repeat. - Hands on owner. This is usually a good thing, but in the case of Shasta QA, this usually resulted in shifting management’s focus from client satisfaction to extended (sometimes multi-day) meetings and/or lengthy email diatribes. Management was left to sift through notes to come up with some sort of action plan. - Open honesty is preached, but, at the same time, there is a strong message of, “you are either with us or against us”. Those that speak out, ask questions, or openly challenge ideas, eventually walk the plank (the company likens itself to a pirate ship). - Very small advancement window if you are not interested in management.
