Pros
These are only positive things I observed during my stay: 1) Higher than average bonus payout in the market. 2) Very well equipped with work equipment/tools and welfare facilities. 3) Good benefits and compensation package.
Cons
There are even more cons weighing down the pros, so do make a careful and wise decision before joining. Just ask around your friends and get some insight of the department you will be joining. 1) Slave driver company - The high bonus payout is literally masking as a carrot to compensate one for the extremely and/or ridiculously long hours. Overtime is a norm, may not appear so to all department, but it happens in most. Some departments worked an average of 12hours per day with no lull period to look forward to. Seriously, there are firms outside paying similar bonus but with reasonable hours. Do remember that money can never buy intangible things, such as time with family and friends. 2) Expectations - Provision of relevant tools and facilities does not equate to their generosity. It is an equivalent trade of their expectation of you to perform your duties promptly. For example, they provide a laptop and you will be very much expected to read and/or reply emails after office hours and over the weekend. Of course you can ignore working over weekends, but you will realize the load of backlog when you check your emails on the next working day. 3) Culture - Its a harsh environment, more than 70 percent of the employees are just rushing to put themselves in good books of their superior, and sad to say, at the expense of their own hours or their subordinates. These rush-and-hush can lead to abortive work, and I have to remind you, these are ad-hoc assignments on top of already heavy, backlog, no-lull-period workload. If you are entering at the most junior position with no one to delegate the work to... You can give this place a pass or you will be burning long hours. 4) No empathy (at all) - Its a norm for organization wants you to voice out if you cannot manage. Yes, we will, and usually they will provide lips service saying they hear us, with nothing done later. Well, do not expect any dog-patting-consoling-message here. Cause - It is All Just Business. If you cannot take the heat and raised your hands, you are likely to be told that the high bonus is exactly why you are expected to work such long hours, plus, you will be branded/marked thereafter. To them, the door is always there, you can walk out anytime if you cannot compete in their race for billions. There will, and always be, someone who is suitable for their rat race. 5) Training/Guidance/Coaching - Slow, no, zero. Training comes very slow, you are already 3months into the job when you realize an email requesting you to sign up to go understand more about the organization structure. Well, you probably already at least 60 percent familiar with the organization and/or you may not even have time to attend training. You may be thinking your superiors and peers may already guide/coach you along. Think again, and look at what was mentioned in point no.3, no one can be bothered with you. 6) Arduous start (and also on-going) - The I.T. department is a surprisingly fast working bunch who would set up your email right after you signed the appointment letter. The earlier you sign, the earlier your email account is set, and the earlier worked are and can be assigned to you by your sick superiors and peers whom cannot wait to lighten their own workload. So imagine opening your email on your first working day and realize over 50 emails of backlog work assigned to your when you were still serving your notice in previous company. If you think the people has empathy to understand? Then you should refer to point no.4. And if you think anyone is patient to guide you? See point no.5. You are on yourself. 7) Value of work - Every company has paper work, none can entirely alleviate from it. But an enormity of your hours spent here are on plain administrative paper work. In fact, even more, than most statutory board. This boils down to the value of the work you are doing, are you doing/learning something useful? Are you gaining valuable experience from those paper work? Even if you are ok, for now, are you going to work 4-5years doing all these time and time again? Alright, lets say you really endured a good 5years. During your next job interview elsewhere, what are you going to sell about your experience and value of work you have done there? So if you are looking for a job to stay long term and gain valuable experience, you can give this place a miss. 8) High Turnover - Needless to say with the aforesaid, I was also amongst the casualties that contributed to the high turnover. It is not a matter of perseverance, it is a matter of worth. When you start weighing all aspects of your life with this job (i.e.Career progression, family work life balance, money, knowledge and experience gained etc.), you will realize that there is nothing much that the company can offer you except for money. If you are an aggressive, out-of-the-world career minded person who can deny the need for any of point no.1 to 7, then you are cut for their job/work.
