Pros
Some of the engineers are smart and good at their jobs. A couple of senior people are effective, but most of them are clueless - especially at the very top. I'm sure someone somewhere is doing good work, but you'd never know it because of how bad everyone is at basic communication. Very low basic compensation. People come to work here because you can come in at 10 and leave at 4 and nobody will even notice because of how disengaged they are.
Cons
The office environment in HQ is truly terrible. When you come in for an interview they won't even give you a tour. It's that bad. Like most initiatives here, they have talked a lot about renovating but haven't actually done anything about it. All talk, no action. Pretty much everyone is just going through the motions and collecting a paycheck. Nobody inspires anyone else to do anything worth doing, which is pretty depressing and degrading. Endless blame games, few constructive relationships. You succeed by being good at politics and joining from the right three letter agency, not by contributing to the company's future or the customers' missions. Leadership is clueless and ineffective and doesn't seem interested in making Ntrepid a better place. They tout "open door" policies but really what that means is "I sit in my office all day with the door open and wait for people to tell me things." That's not the same thing. If you take advantage of the open door, you WILL be blamed for whatever you bring through it. Communicating falsehoods with confidence and authority gets you MUCH further here than communicating truth with uncertainty. Nobody knows what the company priorities are - including the CEO/owner. People rise by being yes-men, and fall by speaking truth to power. (See open door policy above.) This company is basically the owner's retirement project, and it shows. Badly. If you're part of The Club, you get to ride on his private jet. If not, look elsewhere. (The fact that ownership spent a few million on a jet instead of investing in his company should tell you all you need to know about the priorities here.) When you start there will be no training. Literally none. Culture is toxic - everything is a secret, communication is the worst I've seen, and messengers get shot.
