More IT than engineering, not much time or assistance to learn new skills - Avis employé Controls Engineer Wunderlich-Malec Engineering

-LONG working hours at my office. The older engineers make me feel like a slacker for doing only 9-10 hour days (a handful of the senior engineers often to 55-66 hour weeks). I wouldn't mind if the work were stimulating, but I feel dulled inside at the end of most days. I've had to start exercising almost every day to stave off depression. -All but one of the young WME engineers I've worked with left within their first two years. I probably will as well, and I expect the holdout will too. Not a good place for anyone who had the aptitude to be successful in eng school. -Almost a body shop. They want to bill you out to clients as soon as possible, but offer no formal training. I was stationed at a client site from day 1 despite having minimal experience with automation technologies (I had tangential engineering experience in manufacturing, and had interacted with PLCs and HMIs). Many of the employees have negative attitudes towards answering questions or helping new hires learn (they probably had it hard and don't see why you should have it any easier), though a few of the younger employees have been helpful. -Deferred compensation. You get bonuses for the prior year's work, and the ESOP and retirement contributions have a six year tiered vesting period. I haven't joined these because I sensed quickly that I wouldn't stay with the company more than 1-2 years. -Repetitive and dull work. Minimal higher level problem solving (nothing compared to engineering school). Most of the time I just feel like an IT guy who also works with some industrial equipment. Many employees have trade certifications in place of engineering degrees. -You have to suffer OLD technologies. Industrial automation software and hardware is often 10-20+ years old, and badly designed. This means a lot of your time will be spend coming up with workarounds for stupid problems that should have been fixed or designed away.