Pros
Engineers were pleasant to work with. Pay is fairly competitive (more than likely because they can't keep good Engineers very long).
Cons
The first thing you will notice once you start work is that your desk and work area will be small and run down. The desks are very low end and there is little space to store any of the tools you need to do you job. Most engineers resort to laying their drawings out on the floor because of lack of desk space. The second thing is the benefits. You are given two weeks paid vacation. The issue is the company closes between Christmas and New Years. You have an option, either take leave without pay or use up four of your vacation days. The other issue is if you work 48 hours in a single week but need a day off in that same week, you will be charged one vacation day to do so even though you have already work more than 40 hours in the week. The policy is, if you don't come in to work on a business day, you have to use a vacation day regardless of how many hours you worked that week even if you worked all weekend long to get a project out on time. Many of the of the employees at SGM are required to work 50 hour weeks. Finally the Company does not promote creative thinking and hates change. Suggestions and process improvements are NOT received very well. The Engineering department is run like a sweat shop. Competitions would be held to see who can come in the earliest and stay the longest where the loser would have to do something annoying like buy the team doughnuts.
