Well sorry for the late follow up, but here is what happened to me. After an informal interview with them in early January, they said they needed a manufacturing engineer or two to help with the facility expansion, but were going to wait until after SHOT show to officially open the position, and to actually officially interview candidates, as I was the only person that had spoke to them regarding a position. I actively reached out to them asking if they had any open positions, and they gave me a tour, met the team, and an informal interview.
They never reached back out to me, they never officially posted the job openings either, and also exited the civilian ammo market in April 2023 to focus on military and Leo contracts. I haven’t heard anything from them since. But I have been seeing their ammo for sale at local gun shops now, as well as still for sale on their website as well, so it looks like they are selling civilian ammo again I guess?
On another note, I also applied for an engineering job at Arsenal Inc, and has a somewhat similar experience. I did the interview, was given a verbal offer, then went through the background check and drug screen. After I did all of that, I was informed that the position was closed due to budgetary constraints, and would possibly be reopened later if the budget was there. A few months passed by, and I saw the opening back up and reapplied for it. They contacted me to do an interview again, but I decided against it due to the lack of stability I sensed with the company, as well as the previous offer being $30,000/yr less than I am currently making.
I may revisit both of these companies in the future, as I still would like a job in the firearms industry. But I’m not willing to leave my current position for something that seems so unstable, and with poor benefits, as well as a $30,000 paycut, before factoring in bonuses, PTO, vacation etc. I would be losing at least $42,000/yr in salary/bonus alone, as well as several weeks of vacation and PTO, so it would be quite a noticeable hit in compensation and benefits.
But if anyone knows of another firearms/ammunition/armor company in the area that is looking for an engineer, and the pay/benefits are decent, I would very much like to transition my career into that field.