Not bad - werkgeversreview Project Specialist bij Arctech Solar

Government Job with No growth

No Growth no salary hike. Management worst

Salary was above average Work from home possibility Travel Chance to build sales pipeline from scratch in Australia.

There were early red flags in regards to lack of HR organisation, IT, poorly translated documents, software, marketing materials and understanding how people do business in Australia. However, rabbit hole got deeper and deeper. Biggest Red flags: 1) Boss didn't know what a CRM was, I research and convince him for best CRM for us (a international remote team) and submit a request for a subscription amounting to ~$1500/ year for 4 people. The IT dept says - "oh we already have a CRM". Spend 2 more weeks setting up accounts, finally get access when co-worker says: " We shouldn't use the company CRM because Arctech workers in China will try to steal our customers, there is no way to prevent it, there is malicious competition inside the company, and the CEO encourages it." I was told to keep using the Chinese software spreadsheets as a CRM, even after repeated work overlaps and confused customers. 2) Previous customers were abandoned and rejected after sales service by Arctech, including millions in quality defects upon construction. This reputation had spread through the solar industry quickly, poisoning the ability to sell again. 3) Management is unable to listen to customers, employees and government stakeholders with grand delusions on capability and plans for Australia. Wasted employees time submitting a innovation grant EOI only looking for money to build a 3GW factory, no innovation. 4) The worst document handling and IT I've seen at any company. Everyone saves versions of documents on their desktop, and are largely incapable of using live, collaborative documents, sending multiple versions through WeChat, WeCOM, Email etc. I needed a VPN to access the Chinese server. The software infects your computer and permanently blocks access to Microsoft and Google drives, Chrome, edge everything. I.T. dept REFUSED to remove the software. I had to re-install windows. 5) The Chinese factor. If you don't speak Chinese, you will be left out at meetings, client dinners, team dinners wondering what they are talking about. You will be encouraged to drink alcohol even it you decline. Documents and software only translate 70% of words, so you will spend your time with Google lens translate. Terrible English documentation. Also, shady ghost employees that are in the org chart that management won't give you details. 6) Extremely vague commission structure, nothing formalised in contracts, with vague email or verbal notes. 7) Boss is in charge of USA and AUS operations which is nuts. Spent so much time in China and US, was rarely available. Not the way to run a start-up team. 8) Spending. Artech leased an 3bd apartment in Sydney CBD, and is dropping 30K on furnishing it, while leasing a custom office for $300K+ with 1 employee in Sydney with zero sales, but won't spend $1500 on a CRM. Yikes. 9) Reimbursement. The worst reimbursement experience of my life. It took over 3 months to get first reimbursement, and was shorted because they failed to update the travel limits and notify accounts. We had to register as an independent contractor for reimbursement only, they tried to pay in CNY first, then later shorted us "bank fees". It took 6 months to finally be repaid for the hotels and laptop I purchased in the first week of employment.