Pros
> The starting pay was reasonable but I had to negotiate hard for it. Moved from an "emerging" to a more exclusive (for the same rent, I rent a room in a very large house instead of getting a one bedroom in a "nice" complex) area, so I should have negotiated harder. They were really open. > Really liked the office by the airport. Most people were nice and others were a little standoffish at first. There's a gym, a deli, shuttle to ORD, lots of free lunches, and free soda and snacks. > Health insurance is very affordable and even the basic HD plan, combined with a fully funded HSA, is more than adequate > There's a lot of clients though the bureaucrats in charge of handling your work are reluctant to shop you around to other parts of the organization. This is especially so when you were brought in for one purpose. > There are some guided training material and your managers on the bench will make sure you have at least SOME direction > Basically get a month of vacation time but you are expected to somehow show up if the client is closed but CG isn't. Basically all of the policy here means nothing in a staff augmentation situation where CG has sold a fanny to a company.
Cons
> No 401k for first but can't say I blame them > Was moved in and out of Chicago in my first 6 months but felt that I dodged a bullet when a client wouldn't cooperate with my onboarding in hindsight. They should have let me stay where I was until my first day at "work" work. Could have saved them four grand and me eight grand. > More "terminal turnover" at the client than I am currently assigned to. > Took 6 weeks to get reimbursed for the second move out of Chicago. > Work on the client side is slow about 80% of the time, grueling 10% of the time and reasonable the other 10%. Was hoping that it would be a unique opportunity but now have time during my work day to write this. > I was on the bench for 10 weeks. It took 2 weeks for them to find me a place at the project they hired me for and then after the client's HR sat on my on boarding for a month, I was put on the real bench for 2 weeks and then it took another 2 for me to onboard into the alternate project. I eventually had to move some time after I joined the alternate project. > They will not pay for a MBA or technical Master's