engineer

mechanical engineer

Parametric-Solutions-Inc

TL;DR: Company pays okay with mediocre benefits, but the work can be AMAZING and the skills and knowledge will last the rest of your career!

The first and most important thing about PSI is that this is an outsourced engineering firm. You are not a contractor, but you will most often be working on outsourced work from real fortune 500 companies. This will either be good for you or bad for you. The reason I say this is that most of the experienced employees come from one of the big companies, but the rest of the employees are either new to the industry or passed around and the attrition rate is fairly high. This means that you need to figure out who you have to turn to for answers. That being said, PSI has worked on ALOT of cool projects since it began. 

Working there for 3 years, I was able to work on projects for P&W, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Mitsubishi Power Aero, and Vericor. PSI also has done work for GE, Northrop, Sikorsky, Doosan, and a trove of other DoD, Aerospace, Aviation, and Power Generation companies, and last I heard they might be working with Blue Origin. While there I almost lived in NTS in Huntsville, AL (3 months) as well as San Bernadino, CA (1 month). BUT I learned SO much at PSI and was able to work on so many cool things! 

Big companies usually outsource work to small companies to reduce cost and lead times of projects. So expect to have to do alot of work in a short amount of time if you work at PSI. With already having UG NX modeling experience, I felt comfortable there as NX was the default modeling software. P&W, GE, NGC, etc all use NX for CAD and ANSYS for CAE work, so having that at PSI was nice. They started a new manufacturing facility with brand new 5 axis machines for working high tolerance parts. The support and knowledge from the customers was nice, gaining alot of tribal knowledge from the big companies. 

The reliance on outsourced work turned out to be a problem for PSI though. With a combination of the aviation industry hit and Covid, PSI lost alot of work and had to let go of a significant amount of its employees. Fortunately I was not one of them, however, it definitely put a huge hole in the morale of the staff.

I think since PSI has survived Covid-19 and has picked up new customers and projects in different industries, they might be a more stable company able to handle other economic dips in the future. They need to focus on employee retention and benefits, but even with kids I didnt feel TOO financially pressured while working there. 

PSI is a great company for two types of people. People fresh out of college that couldn't get a job at a real company or for people cruising to retirement.  

In terms of a new college graduate PSI is a great place to learn the basics with almost no possibility of being fired, it's a very low stress environment. The work you could start off doing can either be awesome or straight up boring. Careful as it will all seem exciting at first since you are a fresh graduate and happy you landed a job! Also being a fresh graduate the pay is pretty low so I would highly advise not to stay at PSI longer than 2-3 years. Don't worry they expect this and it's common for people to come and go. If you enjoy your job at PSI great! Keep applying to similar jobs at a real company and trust me you'll be much happier there. 

The work PSI has gotten also has gone down hill over the years. They used to get more exciting work but now with how the market is they are filling up alot with general purpose work. Most of which a high school graduate could do and there is again zero career opportunities with this type of work. While they do have contracts with some big and interesting companies these contracts are for small groups of people so good luck getting on those teams. Even if you do remember get your experience and get out!  

There is very little room to be creative with your work as everything is standardized. So if you are a creative person you will absolutely hate working here as everything is black and white.

They do not invest into their employees unless the customer requires it. The words "Goals and objectives"  or anything like that is never discussed even at so called yearly reviews. There is no career advancement or self improvement focus. While they might say there are great career opportunities I can tell you it's 100% a scam. In my many years at PSI promotions are exceedingly rare. Even when someone finally got a promotion within a week they put in their 2 weeks in. 

Raises typically range from 1-5% but do not expect 
major salary increases. They follow a predetermined ISO curve for years of experience and pay. They also do not care about inflation or cost of living. Those expenses will absolutely be higher than your salary increases at PSI.

Don't get my wrong PSI isn't a terrible company there are way worse companies out there but do yourself a favor do not stay here more than a few years. Learn as much as you can to boost your resume for the next company as it will be harder to compete with other candidates if you stay too long here. 

Company is owned by 6 people, all of which will give you different direction. It's not clear who the boss is.  Also pay raises and equipment are scrutinized like it's coming out of their personal checking because it is. Allot of the work is technician work; which is fine if your went to school to be a technician and you don't care about your career and marketable skills.

The worst part is the non compete contract.  It states you can not work for any customer they have done business with for 2 years after your departure (departure includes quitting, fired, layed off...etc).  No one knows who all the customers are and no one wants to ask HR for a list because your intentions would be known.  There is also verbal agreements between PSI owners and certain other local companies to prevent employee poaching.  The end result is being stuck, blackballed, or moving to a state (CA) where the non-compete is not binding.  When people do leave they tell no one where they are going because they don't know if it's on the list or if it will be blocked by an owner.

They also pay overtime, but it's called a "bonus" so you may or may not get it.

Best advice is to steer clear.

PSI is the place to be if you are a talented engineer looking to develop the next-generation of gas turbine engines.  As a senior engineer, I helped to establish PSI’s mentoring program which provides and tracks skill enhancement from internship through retirement.  Base salary is better than market plus PSI pays extra for all hours over 40. The benefits include excellent medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance and 401k.  PSI provides 20-30 days of PTO and encourages flextime for good work-life balance.  Team spirit is strong with events like engineering week contests, family-friendly beach parties, charity walks and food drives. PSI gives back by sponsoring the SAE formula teams at FAU and UF.    I am always proud to go back to my alma mater to recruit new PSI engineers.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Plenty of opportunities to work on complex and challenging projects. The managers were great to work with and the programmer's have their act together.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
All in all I didn't find the company to be stressful.  But it could be pretty intense. Nobody likes NCR's....

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
I got along well with just about everybody. If you needed to talk to somebody from an owner to a supervisor to a programmer.  There door was always open to answer any question.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
You would get your projects to work on from a supervisor,  Get the details from a ME. (manufacturing engineer) . Then onto a programmer for setup info. Then time to get to it and get it started.

I started as a design engineer working on OEM designs.  My input was valued and had a LOT of responsibility in designing product with high end tools.  Then moved to manufacturing my designs, was enlightening on the entire process. Is an excellent all around company.  They started a manufacturing company that is making very complex parts that are some of the hardest in the industry.  The manufacturing team works together and through process development and values my opinion.   Sometimes a lot of work solving problems that were discovered in process.  They are evolving their processes to accelerate our learning.  There has been a management change in the manufacturing organization that has been very positive and more productive

1. - New manufacturing org. 
1.1. - Less than 2 years old. 
2. - Very immature.  
2.1. - insufficient knowledge of successful standards of work & processes. 
2.2. - fewer than needed machines and tool/cutters for work; much empty floor space. 
2.3. - new machine operators - unfamiliar with new machines. 
2.4 - fewer than needed process planners & documentation standards. 
3. - Poor culture. 
3.1. - little cooperation while preaching 'one happy family'. 
3.1.1. - sub-kingdoms forming/formed to protect the sub-kingdom.  
3.2. - near zero diversity - 99% white male. 
4. - Nepotism. 
4.1. - abuse of family relationship/s (with company ownership) to influence or even make decisions; manipulate office politics /relationships; ... etc.

Typical day varies with the position you are filling at the time. You may have quiet time cranking out a design, you may be in a manger position filled with both internal and external meetings.
Owners are management team, all good people.
Company hires the brightest and most driven people and all were nice or they didn't last.
Hardest part of the day was it was at times chaotic due to growth and limited success at standardizing operations.
Most enjoyable part of the day was the great people I worked with.

There's a wide breadth of work that you can get into; if you're interested in pursuing something management is typically pretty flexible about letting you chase your interests. Learned a lot about the design and analysis of Jet engines. Flat organization structure means that there's not layers of bureaucracy to contend with when you need something. Everything is engineer-focused. Good location.

Be careful, there is a dangerous non-compete that prevents you from working for most of the engineering companies in the area and some very large ones worldwide for 2 years.  Yes they enforce the non-compete, even when you’re laid off / fired.

Otherwise the company is owned and operated by 6 owners that will give you conflicting direction and don’t get along with each other. If you don’t enjoy office politics, stay away.

Resources are scarce, you are almost better off working out of your garage.  Software licenses are a constant battle as well as shop tools and finding any guidance and direction.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Engineer 7 salaries reported	$69,286 per year
Mechanical engineer 4 salaries reported	$73,375 per year

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