Fleet Readiness Center East (FRC East)
Pros
Great place to start your career if you are a mechanical/aerospace engineer and want to work in the defense industry. The management and other coworkers around you will gladly help you out and that really is due to the way everything is structured. Nobody is really worried losing their job or worried you will take over their desired position just because there are so many opportunities that open up. The goal is to support the fleet and not to make the highest amount of money for the company like most of the private industries strive for. You get a lot of training and people will be patient with you. Company is growing quickly and depending on how much you enjoy the location you could easily see yourself spending an entire career here. Depending on your GPA (currently I think the line is at 2.95 GPA) you will start as a GS 5/7 step 10 special table and end at a GS 12 step 1. You will take 2.5 or 3.5 years to reach GS 12. No matter where you start you will be living comfortably because the cost of living in the area is just so cheap compared to the rest of the world. If you don't like the location/position you are in then it can be fairly easy to transfer. The benefits that come with working for the federal government are incredible. If you need help understanding any benefits or just how to prepare yourself better for the future there is an abundance of people that are willing and able to help. Work life balance is great and if you want to only work 40 hours a week then you can do so. If you want to work more than that, you usually are able to. They run things well over here.
Cons
Not really any issues for the company and how they run things here. Came from a bigger city and personally I am not a huge fan of how little there is to do in the area. Most other people don't see any problem with the peaceful and quiet area, but the main reason people leave this job is not because of the money or work environment, they leave because they find nothing to do after work. Another issue I have that isn't really against the company, but just the overall pension plan of the federal government. Being able to have a pension is a great thing so don't get me wrong, but what people don't realize is you have to contribute 4.4% of your salary to get this pension and there is no way to opt out. To the average person that doesn't care to learn about investing this is irrelevant, but if you put the numbers in then you realize 4.4% of your salary could do so much better investing in a different type of retirement account like a Roth IRA or the Roth TSP (401k).
