Pros
I'm going to tell you to find another job, but you won't. You'll do what I did, shrug your shoulders, apply anyway, and think you'll either be different, or you'll jump ship if it's too much. Keypoint's major competitor, CACI, is rated 3.4. Employers you'll come in contact with, like the Department of Defense, Patent Office, various security firms... all tend to rate 3 or above with plenty of reviews. There's a reason this company is so firmly below what's a fairly standard rating. If you're not scared of yet, here's some pros and cons. Pros Working from home. I don't think of this as a pro personally but I know most people actually love it. I would disagree mostly because you'll never see your coworkers, which means you can't learn from all their experience. Control your own schedule. The only real pro, unless you've got a terrible manager, where you can control when and even where you do your investigations, to a fault. Want to drop off and pick up your kids every day? You can probably work that in.
Kontras
Cons - got here quick right? Great managers few and far between. I wasn't even finished training when my TRAINERS said I should hope to get a good manager. It didn't help when a field director (ie, their managers) came in during our last day to bark at us about his 'top three pet peeves'. Really? I get a lot of military people land in this job, but boots off buddy, work on motivation, not demoralization. There's a void of knowledge that permeates throughout the entire organization. You'll be told one thing by trainers, another thing by source material, another thing by managers, and something else by reviewers. The best part is, they're all right, depending on the day it is. But you're probably never right, so just go with what you're told, private, I mean, employee. A good example - about a year ago the agency and organization changed the acceptable writing style. A year later, some reviewers hold onto the old writing style and send you back your work because you didn't specify that Joe Schmoe on his personal pleasure trip to Mexico was, in fact, relaxing. That wasn't an exaggeration, this actually happened. I seriously wonder what the federal agency would say knowing cases are held back for these kinds of corrections? Company has fostered an 'us versus them' mentality, and is flailing about trying to figure out how to fix it. Reviewers don't like dealing with Investigators, Investigators don't like dealing with reviewers, and Managers really wish they'd both get along, and try to haze them both equally. If the company spent more of its time and resources retaining and training talent, they could really cut down on their review department altogether. Let's get real, an adjudicator for the federal agency is going to get upset when they get a report that has the spelling and grammar on the elementary school level. They won't be upset if your report did not have 'Pentagon' capitalized. Yes, seriously. Run away now. Pay is low. Terribly low. Laughably low. Almost everyone you meet will make more money than you. Even if you become one of the best paid employees at the company, you'll only start matching what most the people you meet make. The irony is that you'll start seeing the same people over and over. Directors, hiring managers... so look your best, impress them, you might just ask them to hire you someday. Or they might ask you. Maybe those last two sentences should be a pro.