Pros
Insurance benefits are decent. The monthly bonus is good, if you hit all of the requirements. The view over the valley is nice.
Cons
Strap in, because you're in for a roller coaster of a ride. Let's discuss the software we support. It's legitimately the buggiest software I have ever had the misfortune to work with. It's far too complicated for the average user and if you look at it wrong or blink when it doesn't want to, it will crash and you'll lose all of your work (and then will seemingly delete all of your projects the next time you're logged in while it's at it). Updates for the software only break it further. Sometimes an update will roll out that fixes one issue, but it will break a number of other needed features. I'm convinced that the development department is full of a bunch of monkeys just flinging their own poo around. They're a bunch of unqualified gits. Most of the time, when a major bug is found, they only offer workarounds that sometimes sort of skirt the issue. They've been getting better in the more recent months, but it's still awful. Not only are the dozen softwares we support too complicated for the average user, but training for said softwares, if it exists at all, is outdated and poorly crafted. Training for us as the support is virtually nonexistant as well. It's a trial by fire sort of thing. You'll be expected to support all of the features for several softwares you've never even heard of, let alone seen and used. When dealing with the main software, it will look and perform differently depending on which platform you're using it on, and if you're using it online, you'll need to be fluent in clearing your browser cache because for some godforsaken reason development thinks we're living in the 1990's still and can't develop for anything newer than Microsoft Silverlight. You'll have different login email addresses and passwords for everything as well, which adds to the potential confusion. Everything is so convoluted that not even the managers or leads know how or where to log in to do stuff. Let's move on to a critique of our customers. Let me make it known that the customers have a right to be frustrated when they have to deal with our dumpster fire of a software. But that does not excuse them from being downright abusive to us as they are. Our customers are rude, abusive, demanding, and refuse to do anything for themselves. I have never worked at a job where I can be verbally abused by multiple people at a time for my entire shift and not had anything done on my behalf (I'll get to that later, just you wait). Not only are our users demanding and verbally abusive, but almost every single one of them comes into chat multiple times a day because they just cannot figure it out. I partially blame the software for this, but an unwillingness to learn how to do something for yourself also contributes. Alright, time to criticize the management. It appears as though none of them know how to effectively read trend reports between weeks because we never have enough people working to meet our traffic, especially on the weekends. I have never dreaded going to work to the point it made me physically ill until working here and seeing I have to take the Saturday swing shift. Not only the Saturday swing shift though, it's every weekend shift. Coverage is dropped to anywhere between two and four people and if you need help with an issue, which you will, guaranteed, you need to call the on-call L3, who is often just as stressed as you with trying to juggle being on two to three other calls helping people. It's a lose-lose setup. The best way to describe it is actually only one word: HELL. So scheduling is poor at best. If you have any other obligations outside of work, get ready to kiss them goodbye. You're going to college? You can't adjust your work schedule, you'll need to drop out, never sleep, or pray to whichever deity you choose that the classes are offered late evening when you aren't chained to your rigid schedule. Think you can get homework done during your lunch break? Forget that too, because nine out of ten times, you'll have your lunch shortened or cut entirely because you're just not working hard enough to get the absurd customer traffic down. And if it's the busy season (which has become year-round), you not only get to work through your lunch and not leave early to make up for it, but you'll be asked and then required to pick up extra shifts. So now it's time to forget you have a family, because you'll never see them. On top of all of this, you're required to read articles, watch "training" videos, and take quizzes for new garbage softwares that Xactware is publishing (prematurely) once every few days (it used to be once a week or once a month). And then when you're finished with learning (ie "have heard of") the new software, you'll have more responsibilities tacked onto you to meet the needs of support for it. And then when you eventually promote to L2 on your free time that you won't get, you can add even more responsibilities. Long story shortened just a bit, customer traffic is increasing exponentially, and management is unable or unwilling to do anything about it. If you happen to find another position in the company away from support, there's a good chance that you will be arbitrarily held back from promoting on grounds that "support needs you." It's morally and ethically wrong. I don't think that the CEO is aware of what really goes on in support, and if he is, he doesn't care enough to do anything. You're getting closer to the end of my spiel. I've only got a couple other things I'd like to warn you about. SQA, also known as the group of people that grade your interactions with customers. One thing, is that the manager of them was hired because of nepotism, not qualification...and it shows. Nothing is set in stone. You'll lose points on your grades arbitrarily. Sometimes you'll lose points on something you've done in every interaction for over a year out of the blue, just enough to put you in danger of needing remedial coaching, and then never again. It's ridiculous. All-in-all, this is the worst job I've ever had and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. I can't tell you to not work here, but for the love of everything that is good in this world, if you have any self-respect, stay away. There are dozens, dozens of dozens, of other jobs that pay better for less. Jobs that don't make you want to jump through the inch-thick glass windows on the fourth floor every five minutes.
