Pros
There are some good things about this company. For one, it is probably one of the lower stress environments I’ve ever worked in. Missed deadlines don’t seem to get anyone too worked up. They have a strong promote from within culture. So, once you’re in, there seems to be a lot of mobility upward and laterally. The people I’ve worked with and interacted with were all very nice and pleasant to work around. They have an annual ‘festival’ for family and kids that includes tickets to the local AAA baseball team. And, of course, you get a great discount on auto parts at the retail stores.
Cons
It’s pretty slow paced environment. I realize that may not be a negative for everyone, but it was to me. I often didn’t have things to work on for days or weeks at a time. I didn’t feel like I was important or needed at the company. They talk a lot about the culture and values of the company. In my experience, culture is what is practiced, not, what is talked about. The culture I experienced was one that valued controlling costs over investing in adequate tools to do the job right and remain productive. Missed deadlines and poor work are consistently tolerated. Projects that drag on for months and years are no big deal. There is a major emphasis on asking if the customer would be okay ‘with us spending money on that’ instead of asking what the employees need to make the customer experience the best it can be. Speaking strictly of IT, the time off structure is not competitive. You’ll max out at 4 weeks after giving 9 or ten years to the company. You start with, two weeks. You can’t contribute to the company 401k for the first year. Then after that, you aren’t fully vested until after your fifth year of employment. Matching is about 5%. The insurance benefits are pretty middle of the road. I’ve had, and do have, much better. The base salary is below market value, even in Springfield. The company doesn’t seem to invest a lot into IT. I don’t think they see IT as a real driver for the company. They still don’t have WIFI in any of their buildings, but, they are testing it out somewhere. This seems to go back to the lenses of ‘would the customer like us spending money on that’.