Pros
- There are some truly smart people in the Irvine office. Some of the recent hires (within the last year) tend to have direct experience in the medical device industry (not just a CM like PI) and they bring some much-needed experience and structure to the site (despite having limited say in things, as explained further below) - Lunchtime entertainment includes ping pong - Free health insurance, instant full vest on 4% 401k employer match
Cons
- The focus is entirely on making money. Management does not take the time to understand how long things can take, and then complain in public forum to engineers and technicians that they aren’t moving fast enough to build and deliver product. (And god forbid an issue comes up that requires investigation, they'll rush you through that too) - I also have reason to believe that most of our management and senior-level individual contributors don’t understand basic practices of this industry, despite having been in it for many years (i.e. standard industry practices including validation, nonconformances/CAPA) - Little to no room for development - Salaries are low compared to market rates - The Irvine office feels like a stepchild to the business compared to Melbourne, based on how senior leadership looks at us and treats us. The site culture is completely different between the two facilities: for example, an internal company party in Melbourne is an intricately planned and highly attended social gathering at a large theatre (the kind of party that is talked about for weeks after, notwithstanding the afterparties), but the same party in Irvine is nothing more than a happy hour in the outdoor section of a local bar.