Pros
-Pay is okay, but not great. -Vehicle reimbursement is nice, but you'll likely be re-investing all of it into repairs (you will put 300-600+ miles on your car per week plus driving around rough terrain/construction sites and carrying around equipment that damages your car). -Nice to not have to carry around a company cell phone (~$50/month reimbursement). -They reimburse you for certification exams, which can be pricey. -Most of the people who train you will be helpful. -Paid sick time, but very little vacation time.
Cons
-This company preys on out-of-state unemployed geologists. They bring these folks in from all over, promising that it's a great company to work for with great benefits, etc., etc., but that just isn't true. And then you're stuck in Las Vegas at GeoTek with a 1-year lease and nobody else is hiring... -This job has almost nothing to do with geology. They only require a geology degree for the soil tech positions because you can get on the Clark County list for grading about 2 years sooner than folks without an engineering or geology degree, and engineers are too valuable to them to waste on grading. -They take their sweet time to give you the raises you earn by getting certifications. It took me a over a month to get mine and someone else I know had to wait about 3 months. You have to watch your pay stubs like a hawk and constantly ask your supervisors what the status is on that raise you were supposed to get. -You are required to show up at 6 a.m. every day regardless of what time your first job is. This is a ridiculous policy and can often result in you technically being on the clock for 8+ hours, but you can only charge half of that based on the amount of billable hours you had. Why not just have employees come in only when they're actually needed??? -They think their training program is awesome, but it is very disorganized and confusing. -You will get pigeon-holed into doing the same things every single day and they won't want you to do much outside of compaction tests, grading, and sampling, regardless of your ambitions. -You will be expected to fabricate data. Lots of it. -The entire company is very segregated. It makes for an awkward work environment. -Communication problems a-plenty. Supervisors are often not on the same page and you will receive conflicting information on how you are supposed to perform your job. -Management is over-worked. -Work is not distributed evenly. Some weeks there will be a bunch of folks with 10+ hours of overtime while others aren't even getting 40 hours. -Work will slow down tremendously in the winter and you might get dropped down to part-time. -They tell you that they cover 90% of your health insurance, but it's only a b.s. health savings account that couldn't even afford you a monthly trip to see a general practitioner. If you want better insurance, it'll cost you $150/month and still has a $2500 deductible for the PPO plan. Worst health insurance I've ever had. -You will not have an opportunity to advance in this company. -You will have a hard time tracking down most of the reference materials you need for certification exams. This is frustrating because the reference materials are very expensive out-of-pocket and passing these exams is the only way to get raises in this company. -This company is overall very dishonest. They have a reputation amongst other local geotechnical firms for having shady business practices. They lie to their clients and their employees. Avoid at all costs!
