Pros
Biometrics and facial recognition is a fast, fun filled and challenging industry that if you look at most company’s growth and read the industry news published then your expectations will be high. Please lower these as this will not be the case at Cognitec Systems in the US. Here though you will work with some of the best colleagues that are all supportive and truly dedicated to helping each other (minus the management). The customers are amazingly patient, doing their best to learn and work with the product as it was sold to them. So the good news is that if you stay real quiet, do your job well, clearly document EVERYTHING you do and say, then you can hope for three to five years of real solid career experience filled with great work that your bosses will try to take credit for. The best experience any employee can hope for is to avoid being yelled at by the VP or fall prey to his minion. Be realistic, it’s only a job. You will be tempted, but don’t fall into the delusion that between the empty platitudes, passive aggressive HR, vitriolic rantings of the VP and mindless dribble of a manager that it’s anything other than just a job. The best thing you can do is to use what you learned to build yourself a better career, realize that there are some companies out there that sadly cannot be helped and move on. Job perks while working there will include: an adequate health insurance plan, sodas, snacks, a Christmas lunch and potentially a free trip to the home office in Dresden, Germany for a dog and pony show that is extremely sad, yet entertaining.
Cons
It is always good advice to read the fine print on ANY contract before you sign, this is very true as they will tie you to it and more if they think they can get away for it. Consider that almost no one is ever promoted from within unless you’re a close friend, went to school with, or a distant family relation to so the best you can hope for is a lateral move. You may be lucky enough to gain an annual bonus, just don’t expect pay raises or ridiculous notions such as cost of living increases as those are not for the US and all requests will be laughed at. Here are some of the fun mental disorders you may see as a US employee of a foreign owned company, these will include but not limited to: The Napoleon Effect, Narcissism, Anosognosia, Elitism, Illusory Truth Effect, Nepotism, and the Dunning-Kruger Effect (some are more funny than others). Getting “thrown under the bus” is a recurring comical theme as its management’s favorite way to excuse its own consistently poor decisions and performance. It is in your best survival interest to do whatever anyone from management to the home office says (try to get it in writing) without question, even if it goes against doing your job correctly as it will be seen as disrespectful. Expect the occasional arbitrary changes to the employee handbook, so try to stay ahead of them as they are released. Sadly, the more intelligent and competent you are, the more you will be taken advantage of by management so simply accept it. Suck ups with little to no real skills will do fine and thrive for the short term.