A Place to Grow - Solutions Architect 318 Employee Review

I have been working for 318 for about two years, and the thing that stands out the most to me is the quality of the team that surrounds me. There are clearly strong friendships at all levels of the staff, and it's reflected in the work. It is also one of the few places that you can find the highest levels of expertise on the Mac, PC, storage, and networking sides of the field in the same organization. From a team member standpoint that really puts you on solid footing with the confidence you need to finish projects and follow through with that team, as well as learn from them. The culture also encourages strong and straightforward communication of both accolades and concerns, which I find very refreshing.

As with any consultancy, the demand can be strong at times, and it becomes important to develop the necessary skills to handle those trials. Gaining a strong understanding of tools, systems, and your peers early on can help to ease that. I also think that continuing to develop and define the system of routes to resolution with any kind of staff concern would help to improve the speed with which those concerns can be resolved. In my personal experience, the open door policy of a small business has honestly been wonderful, but I think that for different personality types a more clearly defined system would be helpful and comforting.

Hit the ground running and learn fast. Work with technology you might not otherwise have the opportunity to work with. Cool clients.

• Frighteningly high turnover • Regular 10-12 hour days • Salaried employees are considered to be unlimited hour employees. If you request to go hourly, you are threatened with the prospect that there may not be enough work and that you would be released early regularly. The fallacy is that there will always be enough work but you will be too expensive to use so 318 will use an unlimited hour employee instead. • No overtime compensation. • No night or weekend compensation - client's pay 1.5 to 2x their regular rate. • No follow-through on commitments made to staff. Commitments not made in writing. • Internal bonus programs are a joke and are practically impossible to receive a payout with. Bonus points spent on lunches / time-off requests vanish into the abyss or fall on deaf ears. • Management often comes off as selfish and more interested in their own personal success than that of those they manage. • Management does not work with you during scheduling and will sometimes expect you to drive over an hour to be at the office for 30 minutes before commuting an hour home when going home first could have allowed you an entire hour to work. It comes off as an abuse of power.