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For an engineering position at a family-owned company, you should really think twice before joining.

Managers are very good at making grand promises. In particular, managers with a more domineering management style can be highly volatile emotionally, and being scolded, mocked, or subjected to passive-aggressive remarks is an everyday occurrence for engineers. Technical issues can be discussed, but much of the time here is not spent solving problems—it is spent finding someone to take the blame.

Promises that have been made also often change without warning. The job responsibilities described during the interview, the resources promised after joining the company, and even things a manager has personally agreed to can all be changed outright the next day. Over time, you will realize that the company's promises are basically not credible.

On the surface, the working hours seem fairly normal, and most of the time you can leave work on time. However, whenever there is a problem with a project, piece of equipment, or customer, your departure time can easily be delayed. The most frustrating part is that matters could clearly be arranged during working hours, yet they are often left until just before the end of the workday, when you are suddenly told to “take care of it while you're at it.” If you have already made plans to leave on time, you may even be considered insufficiently cooperative.

Taking leave is also not simply a matter of following company policy; it depends heavily on the manager's mood. The day before, they may clearly say that it is no problem, but the next day they may act as if the conversation never happened. Even for legitimate reasons such as medical appointments or surgery, you may be discouraged from taking leave, leaving you completely unsure what the company policy is actually for.

The company also has a so-called “fine system.” Externally, it is described as being for employee benefits and as accumulating into a provident fund that employees can use, but in practice the manager also uses this money. For engineers, the biggest problem with such a system is not the amount of money, but the transparency and fairness of the system as a whole.

The job duties are a classic case of making one person do everything.

Officially, you are an engineer, but in practice, in addition to your original technical work, you also have to handle office administration, equipment maintenance, off-site errands, moving things, miscellaneous tasks, and even provide last-minute support on-site. As soon as you show that you know even a little, situations like “You should know how to do this too, right?” and “Could you help with this while you're at it?” start to appear.

In the end, you are expected to know how to do everything, and everything gets assigned to you.