Pros
Good pay and benefits and there were some really smart people on the commercial side of the company. Never had an issue with my expenses or my paycheck. The IT guys are cool, you'll get a new computer, new iPhone and dual monitors and stand/sit workstations. Everyone gets a company credit card making out of pocket expenses minimal. They pay your bridge tolls, parking and the IRS rate for mileage. Benefit package is decent as well.
Cons
Residential department: Morale is the lowest of any company I have ever worked at. Techs complain about anything and everything. The main lead tech told me on my very first day of work that he was "barely hanging in there". Quality of work they produce is mediocre despite the talk of how good or experienced they are. The lead techs might be snarky and arrogant but at least they're slow! The "team" resembles something more like a loose group of islands connected by string and soup cans. Accountability does not exist and bad behavior is not punished. I have never seen such messy, dirty vans stocked with as few tools and supplies as at AVDG and the techs spend as much time at Home Depot as they do at the job sites. Jobs take entirely too long to complete due to that fact, among the many other inefficiencies. Add in the long travel times involved that are routinely not accounted for and techs who arrive late and leave early and you have a recipe for your projects going way over budget. There are few procedures or standards in place for project management which makes getting projects completed much harder than it needs to be. There are no technical standards or methods of procedures in place to keep the work the technicians do efficient and consistent. Good luck getting anyone to commit to what might resemble a standard. Make the mistake of suggesting change and you will be put in your place. There is no training of technicians whatsoever. No formal training, no informal training, no early morning or late afternoon workshop training. New gear that no one has ever installed before is opened for the first time on the job site and surprise... no one knows how to get it working. Hours are wasted on tech support lines instead of offsite preparation and a focus on efficiency on site. Only the lead techs get vans and parts so the assistant techs literally have no parts whatsoever. Really hard to install an access point when you don't have screws or a few RJ45 connectors. Oops! Another trip back... There is virtually no stock of regularly used parts, cable or connectors at the warehouse. There is no proper labeling system at the prewire stage so they go through hundreds of dollars worth of white electrical tape which comes off and/or smears so that its no longer legible. Ladders are strewn out all over the place and new ones are purchased because it's faster than trying to round up the old ones. Without a consistent delivery driver, it's the PM's job to go get the box truck, load it with ladders, cable, job boxes and anything else that might be needed and ferry it to the site yourself. Oh, and leave your good ideas at the door. No one is interested in hearing how you can improve anything. Lots of talk about what's possible but not a lot of action. Mid level management are so worried about covering themselves that they neglect the basic day to day challenges that should be easy to solve. You'll hear about how ideas will be discussed and how new procedures will be put in place. Unfortunately everyone is so busy putting out fires that nothing ever gets done to improve the system. And using drinking straws instead of a fire hose to put out fires insure that it will smolder and require attention over and over again. Do you like driving? You better because their jobs are spread out all over the place- there is no radius they are willing to work within. The sales team sells projects hundreds of miles from the office and since some employees live far from the city, commutes are some of the worst you could expect. Whether you work in the NorCal office or the SoCal office, you can bet you will be driving a lot of miles to cover the projects. I routinely clocked in 1500 miles a month. And the sales team are never wrong about anything so speak up at your own peril. Because hey, THEY talk to the billionaires. They have billionaire clients. Forget that fact and you will be promptly reminded. There is extremely high turnover in nearly every department of the company. During my time there, more than 20 people were fired or quit, including many veterans who constituted the lion's share of the company's expert knowledge base. Now that AVDG and TVTI have merged, there is a real power struggle between sales, engineering and management at the two entities. Everyone has a new boss and not many are happy about it. The top TVTI guys are as cocky as they come and verbally abuse their subordinates. They make threats, blame others and are uninterested in hearing input from those they supervise. Place a know it all Guitar Center executive at the top and you've got a real tinderbox. The key to this job is keeping your head down, staying in your own lane and surviving each project.
