Vantaggi
They have a well stocked facility and it was a pleasure working with talented engineers from a diverse range of engineering disciplines. Food was catered. Everyone is outwardly pleasant and kind and I felt accepted and valued amongst my colleagues. Well catered workplace and a lot of the work is self-guided. The work culture is very typical of startups, which has good and bad aspects. I had a lot of freedom, there was a lot of money being allocated to my team so I was unconstrained by budgets and equipment. Management are results-focused and risk adverse, so you are usually given the best stuff. Overall a fun, challenging and exciting place to be but certainly has it's ups and downs! There were a lot of happy employees there.
Svantaggi
No job security, unexpectedly laid off along with a bunch of colleagues. Location (Kurnell) is difficult to get to, especially by 8AM. You are expected to work longer than your paid hours, and usually have to wear uncomfortable full PPE all day if you're working on the process line. It's been a year since I was laid off and I still have minor, but chronic contact injuries from wearing a respirator and goggles too often. Deadlines were often extremely challenging and it is easy to become discouraged when things go wrong, sometimes keeping up morale for yourself and the team is a big challenge. Senior management are great but the top executives were often out of touch with what is going on at ground level, leading to problems being overlooked and deadlines becoming unrealistic. I wouldn't say the workplace is toxic but high stress levels amongst the staff make it a bit like a tinderbox, lots of gossip amongst colleagues and about half seemed upset with pay and general conditions. There is little to no career progression for junior engineers and the maximum wage is very low, pay rises were carrot-dangled but withheld until deadlines met (in my case, delayed indefinitely).