enCompass Solutions Group Reviews

This was my experience, and can only be taken for what it was, but it was not a good experience for me. I worked at the company for a sum total of 9 days, before being abruptly fired for insufficient (in my opinion) reasons. During that time, I received approximately 1.5 hours of training from the hiring manager, had no official or written milestones that I was supposed to follow, no progress reports that I could use to gauge my progress prior to being let go. Hiring process backstory - I went in to interview with the hiring manager only, first. It went really well, and I was asked back for a second interview, which was with the CEO, the CFO, the hiring manager, and another person who's title I'm not sure. This interview was a little tricky, and I was asked questions about my experience with Industrial Controls. I stated that I had no industry experience to speak of, but that I was interested in the area of industrial control systems, and eagerly seeking a position at local companies hiring for these positions. I am a mechatronics engineering graduate from SFU. The interview went well enough to garner me a job offer from the company. I was asked to sign a contract which stated two very strange things. The first was that the company held the right to "unilaterally" change my compensation, provided that they give me 1 week notice, and the rest of the contract would hold. The second was that the company held the right to "unilaterally" change my permanent location of work, provided that they give me 1 weeks notice, and the rest of the contract would hold. I had literally just graduated from University (SFU Mechatronics Engineering), and I had no prior experience in controls, and was quite interested in the position, so I sign it, despite my nervousness. After signing, I expressed my concern with a short email. I know it was bad to do this after signing, but I haven't signed a lot of contracts, and was kind of naive about the process. In the email, I simply said that these two clauses made me somewhat nervous, and I asked if I could potentially have the ability to renegotiate at a later date. I got a reply from my hiring manager, with the CFO cc'd on the email, stating that if I had concerns, I could take it up with him when I'd arrived. I thanked him in the email, but chose not to pursue any sort of provocative conversations immediately after starting, at least for the first little while, or until I had a chance to meet everybody and get settled. It's possible that my firing was prompted by this contractual issue, but it was never mentioned to me during the meeting where I was let go. A bit of an elaboration on my 2 week experience working at Encompass- Immediately after beginning work, the hiring manager (in my opinion) was completely not interested in even giving me more than a few minutes of his time on the first day. I was asked to fill out / read over the onboarding documents. The only actual training I ever got from him was roughly 1 hour of his time on the second day, but he was very short with me, and apt to point out my stupidity / how my ignorant questions were wasting his time. On the 5th day, he went off on a rant about how he couldn't believe how stupid I was for not being able to figure something out. It was as if I'd lost before I began. He had absolutely no time for me, in terms of training. I went around asking others for assistance with things, but he really did not take time to train. No official milestones were laid out, but rather, vague suggestions on what I could potentially be doing. The company deals in controls solutions, and I was expected to learn how to operate / install / troubleshoot Allen Bradley PLC's (among other components). I was given a training unit, a laptop with Logix5000 (the operating software), and a large-ish 400 page training manual to read through. 9 days into working there, and with zero (I mean this completely literally) prior warning, the hiring manager asked me to come down to the meeting room, where he fired me. The reason being that I was not making progress quickly enough for the company, and they would have to let me go. I was shocked and choked, and I could barely muster a "thank you for your time" / handshake before leaving the office. It was completely and utterly shocking to me. In the hiring managers defense, I truly believe that he actually kind of liked me, and he was actually a pretty nice person in real life. My first interview, we hit it off, and he had obviously liked me well enough to have me back for the second. BUT, I think that he had some serious issues with coping with stress, and also, he was in charge of a department that was expanding, and I think he was overburdened, and required additional assistance with managing the technical department. Other highlights of my time at the company include the CEO stealing and eating my banana while my back was turned, the CEO riding a unicycle around in the lobby while on the phone with a client, and a worker arbitrarily tampering with my laptop while I was away from it (eg. setting all images in my browser to pictures of Nicholas Cage). These seem petty to point out, but this oddness is indicative of the company culture, the lack of proper organization and control, lack of professionalism, and.. well just downright strange behaviour from the CEO of the company. I'd like to also point out that, throughout my degree, I've worked for 2 companies, both for 8 month extended coops. Extended meaning that I worked for a standard 4 month term, and I did a good enough job for them to keep me on working there for another term. In addition, I now work for a company that has provided me with fantastic training. The relation I have with my manager is going very well, and everybody I work with is pleased with my progress. Take from this what you will, but I've stated only the facts about my time at Encompass, and want to flag this experience to other job seekers, as it was really a terrible time for me after that, causing me emotional distress and questioning my competency. In addition, it was about 4 weeks of my time wasted, as I was no longer seeking after I got the contract, and started 2 weeks thereafter.