Pros

I worked here for three and a half years and am very grateful for the experience. Any employee who says that Avantguard doesn't care about their employees hasn't worked closely with the upper management. At most of my past jobs I never even knew the CEO but I have ran into Josh Garner out of state where he has ran across the parking lot to say hi and ask about my family by name. He truly does care. It is a very... successful company that is growing quickly. The company had doubled in size while I was there which had effected the culture a little bit but overall it is not your typical company where you show up just for a paycheck. You are truly making a difference working here and can feel good about yourself when you leave your job each day.

Cons

Being an operator can become monotonous over time.

Advice to Management

The only complaint I have is that Avantguard has been starting to hire management like the rest of the world the last couple of years. When Avantguard starts valuing degrees over quality of people it will lose what has made it special this whole time and will become like any other company. Some of my favorite and most beneficial leaders at Avantguard did not have degrees and some of my least favorite were very... qualified on paper (half of which ended up getting let go and I could have called it from day 1). Hire for culture first, and don't be afraid to hire internally. Not having middle management who will carry the culture from Josh to the operators is hurting the morale in central.