I was recruited to the West Lafayette Design Center from another state. I had one interview over the phone and then received an offer. My recruiter was very unhelpful. She gave very short and, for the most part, unhelpful. After I had filled out all my paperwork and emailed everything back to her, she stopped all communication with me. I had my start date from my offer letter, but that was it. I attempted to contact her a number of times (to get information about attire, when I should show up, what I needed, what to expect, and where exactly to go) but she never responded.
Training for the position included time to review a couple PowerPoints that briefly covered the PLM that the company uses (these PowerPoints were out of date), some time to review company policy and standard work, and to set up the various accounts needed. The PowerPoints did not begin to cover what is needed to know about the PLM to do work and the standard works are vague and unhelpful. You can set up your accounts for email and such, but most things (such as the PLM) need to be approved before you can use it. It took me about a month to get all the accesses I needed and most of the resources available were not mentioned anywhere (you only find out by happen chance or talking to those around you).
My experience working as a contractor through this company has made me want to avoid working as a contractor. Most of the work done at this center is through one company, and getting information from them or getting them to make decisions proved extremely difficult. Most of the time it seemed that I had little control over the direction of my designs and requirements were often changed as you were finishing up a design, which usually caused major changes.
There seemed to be a high turnover rate of designers there. Every indication was that most people did not stay more than a year or two. Many of the people I met ended up there after being layed-off at other companies. Overall the moral within the company was very low, nobody ever seemed to enjoy what they were working on and nobody wanted to be there.
Growth within the company did not seem existent. I never heard of promotions within the company, only shuffling between departments.
