Pros
Small company with friendly, long-term staff. The owner is nice and approachable. Good pay and benefits compared to national averages, but not industry standards. Unlike with large companies, you aren't just a number, and there is definitely room for upward mobility if the company can grow as they clearly want to. Lack of raises was a serious issue in the past, but they've made an effort to improve on this end lately.
Cons
Owner is a bit delusional when it comes to benefits, offering benefits weaker than the companies at prime on the same contracts, and justifying those benefits by arguing that they are consistently average compared to all technology companies across the country. Which about sums up my thoughts on OPS Consulting in general: consistently average. It's a perfectly fine, functioning company, that wants to grow into a larger company, but doesn't seem to understand why they lose so many people that they stay the same size, despite very loose hiring standards. The retirement benefits are my biggest concern, as for a company that continuously emphasizes loyalty and wanting employees who will retire with them, the 3.75% 401k matching may be the worst of any intelligence contracting company. From a culture standpoint, they're the kind of company that Googles "how to create company culture" and puts a middling amount of effort into enacting it, rather than having any true culture of its own. There's little connection between the employees (somewhat tough to pull off in this industry, due to being scattered on contracts), little consistency outside of office staff, and a division leadership structure that shows the emphasis is on business development rather than work excellence. In two years with the company there were perhaps 10 outside work events: two holiday events, a few happy hours, and two baseball games. The other big concern is that small companies generally offer superior pay and benefits to large companies due to the greater risk associated with them: less contracts, less locations, less diversification, so that if a contract ends, or you have clearance issues, instead of being reassigned, you simply are out of a job. OPS has the greater risks of being a small company, yet has the same or a bit less pay and benefits compared to the larger companies. For this reason specifically I can't recommend it to anyone in this career field. If you are willing to work for lower end pay and benefits in exchange for job security, this isn't the place. If you are willing to accept less job security in exchange for higher end pay and benefits, this isn't the place. As a sub-prime, if you'll be hired by OPS, you'll also be hired by the prime company on the contract, likely for the same pay/benefits with greater security. You just won't get to have breakfast with the owner once or twice.