Vantaggi
The ability to work from home on some engagements is a plus. The organisation has a bonus scheme based on utilisation. They will pay for industry certification such as CRT, OSCP and CISSP up to a point. Will also offer PCI QSA and ISO 27001 if that is your thing. Some pretty smart people worked there, and had no problems teaching when there was time, so if you want to learn, you can push for it.
Svantaggi
The organisation will overwork you, with a higher than standard utilisation, and a want for every job to be on site, even for web applications. They will not take into account paperwork, or travel time to client sites, and will not even try to make sane bookings week to week, with the worst example of which was Southport Monday to Wednesday, Leeds on Thursday, and Scotland on Friday. This makes the average week Monday to Friday on site, Saturday paperwork, Sunday travel for a Monday start. The bonus scheme is based on utilisation looking for around 80% or 19/20 consultant days a month, and has nothing to do with performance, and as such, is fully dependent on if you are booked out, with some consultants sitting with no work, and others having a full month on-site. If you want to book a day in your diary for say post engagements feedback which has been sold, paperwork, travel, or training these will NOT count toward your bonus, Large ammout of pay disparity at the time, with pay being based low for industry average. No pay increases based on your progress in your career, and management even having the fall to claim age effects wage. Although the organisation will pay for certifications, no time will be given to study, it will be expected to be done in your own time. No formal training program exists internally for onboarding new starters, with the organisation taking a swim or sink approach to consulting, which leads to a vast disparity in the quality of testing which is carried out. Make sure everything you are offered is in writing, on numerous occasions promises were broken by management from pay, training, budget and promotion. Management is not great all around, with the odd exception , with a feeling of needing to walk on egg shells around scienor management which focus in all the wrong areas of the business. From massively overspending on both numbers and wages on the sales team, opening a AUS office which is not utilised, and not focusing on upskilling or recruiting consultants. Lots of sales, consultants and 'testing directors' have left since the flotation as part of the cost saving measures implemented.