Pros
If you have room in your schedule to participate in company events, it's a fun place to be. The in-office schedule is flexible and the designers are all very nice, flexible and want to help each other out. They pay overtime, which is rare for a design firm, so it's a great place to get your lessons in and pay off those school loans. They have a developed Revit system, and all senior living work is done in Revit. Commercial work is not.
Cons
They only promote based on loyalty, not skills or ambitions. So, there is alot of frustration amongst PAs that are doing PM work without the possibility of promotion. They have admitted that they don't have any growth options beyond 'registered architect' for anyone new at the firm for at least 3 years due to a line of white guys they intend to promote into management first. They do not support folks with families, moms and dads alike have had to leave for more appropriate work-life balances. It's not rare for someone to come to you and ask for you to work weekends, holidays or over your scheduled PTO time. If they voluntell you to join several committees, it's non billable time and so it negates your billable overtime and you will not be paid for it, so beware of that trap. I also learned from a PM after leaving there, that they typically do not take your two weeks and they did not take mine, so if you plan on leaving I wouldn't give notice. It left my team scrambling and my clients were calling me all weekend.
