Pros
Truly, there is only a real upside to working here if your work experience is outside of the oil and gas industry, which is a crazy seeing as how RigNet is an oil and gas service provider. If you have product development experience or if you have worked with the current CEO at one of his previous companies, you can do no wrong.
Cons
Far too many to list out all of them, but the biggest issue I see is that the top decision makers know absolutely nothing about our industry, what our customers want, or how to run this type of business. They believe that this company can be run the same way as their previous companies in different industries, which is ridiculous. The CEO makes snap judgements about situations and people without any facts, and even when he is informed, he will stick to his misinformed guns rather than EVER admit he could POSSIBLY be incorrect. The culture is "management by fear", wherein everyone is too afraid of retaliation for having a differing opinion about anything to even express alternate ideas on how to accomplish company goals. There are less than 4 people in the entire organization that can tell you anything about the strategy, direction, or plans for the company, because the CEO has no clue how to express his vision. There were such high hopes for the changes coming back when the CEO took over, but unfortunately, this has become perhaps the worst run organization I have ever been a part of, and will be looking for an exit soon. At the rate that they are going, senior management will have successfully destroyed years of hard work from hundreds of current and former employees, all in a matter of months. It is depressing to walk into a building where everyone is just droning along trying to do their best, all while just waiting for someone to punch their ticket and send them packing. It happened last week with one of the better managers that the company had. Apparently, his vision didn't match up with the CEO's, and I feel sorry for the team that is left behind to pick up the pieces, because they won't get any real support moving forward from a group that has no idea how their business needs to be run. If it can happen to him, it can easily happen to the rest of us worker bees that are much more easily replaced. The CFO is awarded a massive bonus, newly hired project managers are given sign-on bonuses and are paid more than department managers with far more responsibility, pointless company acquisitions are being pursued (or have been completed), yet the current employees that got this company where it is today are ignored and unappreciated across the board. No bonuses for those that are even eligible for them anymore, and no word about raises either. My bonus was taken away and I was given a weak raise (less than one year's worth of what my bonus was) to compensate for it. The CEO went so far as to send a note out about how Wall Street is apparently paying attention to how he is doing things because our stock price went up, which is both conceited and uninformed, as the real reason for the stock price increase was market condition turnaround and commitments made by OPEC (remember, we are an oil and gas service provider). By the way, I think the stock price had dropped steadily since. Some day soon, the company will be up for sale, or certain departments other than product development will be up for sale. The guys at the top will get the big payday, and everyone else will get the shaft. Some employees are able to travel constantly, spending well over 150 days per year in a hotel, while others are questioned if they want to travel to Houston for the week. There is a definite double-standard at RigNet. Not all employees are treated equally, that is for certain. It's just sad, really. If you are looking for employment and you don't have any firm ties to the CEO or his Dallas cronies, I would consider RigNet as the last possible option only.