Vantaggi
As others have said, the work is really interesting. The printers are fantastic machines and the science behind them is pretty fascinating.
Svantaggi
There is a seriously toxic culture at HID Global in Eden Prairie. Do not mince my words here, it's very, very sick. Do yourself a favor and avoid this place for your own health and safety! The senior management at Eden Prairie must simply not believe in teamwork, since it isn't something that they seem capable of doing. For starters, these are people who seem firmly to believe that, since they are managers, they are absolved from being reasonable or polite. Yet, these same people struggle to understand why it's so difficult for them to get things accomplished. The "innovation" that gets rammed down the chain comes from a single, dangerously incompetent source. Unfortunately for everyone in the organization, this source is also extremely charming and manipulative, and the functional managers have modeled themselves in the same image. As such, you had better keep your guard up 24/7, or else someone will pull your card out for some random, unnecessary reason. This is not working on a team with leaders, it is working with a group of trauma victims led by schoolyard bullies. Project planning is a painfully new experience for the team in Eden Prairie, which should be shocking to a professional in any capacity. A plan would be a shocking omission for any backyard project, let alone for a supposedly high-tech engineering firm’s project. That this is a struggle for the management team should speak volumes to any potential applicant. Frequently there are fundamental disconnects from reality and what management expects in terms of outcomes (if we don’t plan anything, it’s all innovation, no? /s). When presented with documented, contrary evidence, management resorts to shame, guilt, fear, and eventually rage until they get their way. If they don’t get their way, however unreasonable the request, you will be wearing the scarlet letter. Should you choose to bring any of this to HR, you can expect it to be your fault. Be prepared to be further shamed into compliance with tidbits like, "X needs to understand that some questions don't have answers." on your professional reviews. It's pretty scary how sick this culture is. Unless you've got professional training on de-escalation and on how to deal with malignant personality types, I would urge you to steer clear of HID in Eden Prairie. Sure, the science is definitely interesting and that’s certainly exciting, but will you be on edge because of that excitement or will it be because you are in a constant state of Fight-or-Flight because you must constantly fend off narcissistic attacks from the substantially unhinged people you work with?