Avantages
Interesting work. The company was taking a diverse range of projects which is unusual for a industry specific engineering company. There is a lot of concept design work here which is not easy to find in Toronto.
Inconvénients
The owner is verbally abusive and has a temper. This extends to even his favored employees. I'm a manager of engineers and designers myself now and could not imagine treating people the way he did. I learned a lot of what-not-to-do lessons here. There seemed to be no correlation between quality of work and treatment. You never knew what small thing would set him off. High quality talent simply moves on in this environment.
I'm used to 70-80hr weeks and this was expected here; however, as a contractor you are paid by the hour and this should include OT. Billing for OT was not allowed and was met with another temper tantrum.
The owner was dishonest. I have a family to support and was concerned about being laid off when the work dropped off. I had several offers but stayed because I was assured that I was going to be hired outright shortly; then, I was terminated as soon as the project was complete.
The owner has a hygiene problem. I don't know if this is something that he eats but the smell is sickening. This sounds petty but it became an issue.
The owner creates an uncomfortable environment by showing inappropriate pictures of his wife (topless breastfeeding etc) I'm a supporter of women's rights and see breastfeeding as natural; however, we don't need to see pictures in a design review meeting.