Vantaggi
Great co-workers, getting opportunity to work on the A380 and B777 aircraft. Eye catcher on a resume. Global exposure and eye on a part of aviation that few get a chance to experience...especially if you are USA based. Company has great benefits, however salaries are inconsistent and shockingly low for maintenance.
Svantaggi
From day 1 being subjected to a threatening, degrading, and an extremely unprofessional workplace. Experienced age and ethnic discrimination during my time there. Favoritism is rampant. Management will pounce on you any opportunity they get to humiliate, and use it against you when it comes time for the annual "Performance Matters" Review. Keep in mind it does affect your raises and standing in the company. They sit down beforehand and rig the score, not what you actually deserved. The idea is to keep the employees weak, to further be able to assert management's control and position. For those who work hard, it goes unnoticed. You can do 100 great things for the company and 1 small mistake or accident they will run with it....blow it out of proportion and use it to humilate and punish you. Do not believe them when they tell you during the interview they encourage career development as becoming trained as an Engineer. They work their hardest to keep you down, to do the dirty work for them. Even though they hire A&Ps, you technically don't require an A&P for the work you will be doing. 90% of the work will be changing seat covers with human excrements, unclogging toilets, and cleaning sink strainers in the lavs that are filled with puke, and sometimes even human crap! (those marvelous showers onboard the A380???.....Also sometimes clogged with crap and from passengers that pleased themselves!- you will be cleaning!). They are and will be saturated with engineers....they just need grunts, and they will treat you like a permanent intern in the 3rd world! HR is virtually non-existent and useless in the US. They need to reach out and be more proactive interacting with the staff to listen to their concerns, because JFK management has built up such a fear that every concern and issue must go through them. If you attempt other outlets and are found out, you are threatened of being fired for not following the "proper channels". So, essentially it is run as a dictatorship. You are harassed and questioned if you don't answer your phone on your day off/decline overtime....expect to provide a good reason. Expect to scratch $30/hr after 8 years....meanwhile US carries are far exceeding that amount in a shorter time, with a much more promising future for promotions and transfers. Profit shares can be nice, but they are an unreliable source of income. When I was attempting to negotiate such a low salary, I was assured by HR that the profit shares would make up for it....Well, I worked the first 3 years seeing nothing, only having pay go up from $20, to less than a $2 increase. Try surviving in NYC on that.
