Pros
- Diverse projects - Nice people on the engineering/design side. These are mostly ex-HP folks who are generally well mannered and intelligent. - Work/life balance can be reasonable. Put in your nine hours (not eight), do what you can, and ignore the fact that you'd have to work twice that much to actually hit the project schedule. BTW, if you do work more and deliver more you won't be rewarded, but I guess that's a con so I'm getting ahead of myself. - On the engineering side you don't have to deal with the rampant nepotism and cronyism. You can't fake the engineering degree, so the "friends and family program" is mostly implemented in manufacturing and support functions. - Engineering management is generally good with a few glaring exceptions.
Cons
- Crazy project schedules. It's all about getting the clients hooked and locking them in. If you actually try to deliver to the promised schedule you will probably be working nights and weekends, and you will not be rewarded for the effort. - No training, investment, or growth of any kind. - Not many tools. - Terrible benefits. - Pay can be OK if you come in from a position of strength - i.e. you have a job. You will never get a meaningful raise, so whatever you start at is what you're going to get in perpetuity. - No real bonus. No stock or other compensation. - Management outside of engineering is very weak.
