Pros
Free food that doesn't always result in food poisoning Engineers that I worked with were great Good location in centre of town Free broadband
Kontras
I worked here for over two years. It was only when I handed my notice in that they suddenly decided that I was worth an additional £8k/y. It was not enough to stay. Bonus is paid annually in the June pay packet, and is for the financial year April-April. Despite the fact I left in June, I was told that I wouldn't receive my bonus. I offered to leave in July but was told this would not make a difference. Still arguing against this despite having left already, but they have just said that the reason I'm not entitled to a bonus is that I left in June. So go figure. Expenses here are completely backwards. If you need to go to London for work including a stop-over, this has to come out of your pocket and be expensed when you return. If you are doing a few trips per month then it easily climbs to the £1000s that you are owed by the company because they won't provide a company card to use. They have one, they just don't let lowly Engineers use it. Working out of hours is mandatory* in particular roles, but there is no additional compensation for this (* following changes to the change control process, a large majority of changes must be completed out of hours, so it's either don't work out of hours or don't do work) Training is non-existent. Vendor demonstrations happen, but these are often the cheap/free demo by a salesman rather than a technical overview and training programme. Personal development is alluded to, but staffing levels and job requirements mean there is no scope to acheive this. There is a serious skill/staff deficit with Operations. If this company spent half as much effort on staff retention as it does into squiriming out of bonus payments and other staff incentives, this could be avoided. Plus the company survey that goes round gets pretty much ignored by the higher-ups unless there is something they can address/deliver at zero cost.