Pros
They have an ISP foreman and assistant who treat you well and do their best to show you the ins and outs, how to use the equipment, and how to test circuits. The OSP PM is proficient and is not afraid to get his hands dirty. He pulled fiber for numerous years and is a quality leader and mentor.
Cons
NO Paid Time Off! No Paid holidays! No work, no pay! Not guaranteed 40 hours a week! They will make promises that you can make up the low rate of pay with overtime. I had a total of 8 weeks that were 40 hrs or more during the span of a year! PMs can go and have a party, bring it back to the shop where they proceed to knock holes in walls and leave beer cans all over the shop, and management sees nothing wrong with it. Nothing was done in response to the damaging of company property; but - the warehouse manager that reported the incident was reprimanded for "sticking his nose in front office business". You are forced to join a union which is a waste of time - there were no benefits to being in the union. The Union hall is in Lansdowne, Maryland, a 2 plus hour commute from the work site - not convenient for anybody. 2 of the PM's have no clue what's going on. For instance, they are more concerned with what the other is wrong rather than doing their own work. They don't do walk a through before a job is supposed to start. They get the technicians to do this duty. The VA company relies on 4-5 people constantly for outages. These guys get 80 hours a week (the same 80 hours a week promised at the time of hire to compensate for the low rate of pay); however, everyone else barely gets 40 hours a week (usually averaging about 35 hours a week). The company has multiple skilled technicians but fails to use them, instead relying solely on the 4-5 favorites. No clearance is needed, so if you have a clearance DO NOT come here. There is one foreman who would rather belittle you, instead of helping or mentoring, in an attempt to make himself appear to be better then you. He should just retire since he sucked every last drop of morale and cheer from the team.