Great place to start out and get experience in a lab
Pros
I worked in the Lab on the Arklow site. It was a great first job to get after university. Amazing experience. You are given great experience and get to learn all the different techniques. Colleagues are all very helpful and are there to give advice and help when needed. Groups are very friendly and supervisors are approachable and very accommodating. Great friendships are forged there as it is a very team based environment where there is a lot of pressure on staff to reach deadlines. Very fast paced environment that lets you play your strengths and gives you a chance to explore more than just the basic testing functions. Good health insurance policy. Good work/life balance. Flexible start/finish times. Opportunity to work overtime if you want to. No mandatory overtime.
Cons
Salary is ok in the beginning as a graduate however it does not increase accordingly considering the nature of the work in comparison to other companies in the area. Lots of staff is lost due to this. Uneven workload between groups. Certain groups have enormous pressure and others don't. This is a bit discouraging to those who do work so hard and put in the 110% every day. Limited career progression.
