Where to start.......
-They will work you to the bone, and then want more. There is no respite, no downtime
-You are salaried, but treated like an hourly worker, except when it comes to OT (show up exactly at this time, exactly one hour for lunch, cannot leave 1 minute before your scheduled time), but when it comes to working extra, it's considered 'for the team' IE-no extra pay. It's not a two way street with time worked there.
-You will very very quickly outgrow the salary that you get. Your only increases will come at your yearly performance reviews, and they are paltry at best, barely outpacing inflation. You starting salary will be decent for your skill set (they will try their best to low-ball you - see the interview review). After less than 2 years, I left for a 40% raise.
-People are miserable because they are overworked and underpaid. This will become demoralizing very quickly.
-They beat their drums to the bonus and ESOP. Every time it can be brought up in meetings or conversation with management, it is. I guess if you've been at the company for 10+ years, the bonus and ESOP are pretty good. For anyone else, they are not. My ESOP came out to about 2% of my annual salary, hardly anything to motivate me, and it takes 5 years to vest, so after leaving, I got nothing.
-You will be deceived. Get everything in writing. They will say anything to make you think like you matter. You will be given promises of intangible things, so they can be rescinded later. Any negotiations should be done in writing or you will not get what you asked for.
-A quote from management, "We only hire when we are bleeding." That's right. You will constantly be understaffed. You will be expected to deal with it, and work mandatory unpaid overtime, or a "Blitz" as they call it, to make up for rising ticket numbers and a lack of hiring. This is an effort to keep costs low so the senior management can eck out a few extra bucks into their accounts at the end of the year
-The clients will treat you like garbage, and nobody will tell them otherwise. An employee was once almost moved to tears over stuff a client was saying. Management's response to the complaint, "Suck it up, they pay us a lot of money." No protection for employees from clients.
-If you want to take pride in your work, don't work at ITS. The work you do will be done as quickly as possible, so it works enough to be passable. There will be constant mistakes due to this speed. Client networks and systems never get any better or stable, because they are never given proper attention. As a self-respecting network engineer, I couldn't take this.
