Vantaggi
The salary is usually higher than the industry average, which is what drew me in. They also have a quarterly bonus program that can amount to a few thousand extra dollars each year.
Svantaggi
Just about every other facet of the work life is below industry average. Health insurance is the high premium, high deductible, high out of pocket, covers nothing up front type. Two weeks of vacation per year is accrued, but there are always barriers to using it. The plants are 24-hour operations, and engineers are expected to be available 24 hours to support production, also working mandatory weekend shifts. But the most frustrating thing was being hired to improve processes and efficiency but always being so swamped by daily production tasks and ineffective and time-consuming top-down initiatives that I never had time to make any positive change. It began to feel like a production prison where every day became the same.