Great Benefits, but tendency to stick with the norm even if the norm is from 1995
Pros
- Great Benefits package that gets greater the longer you are there (first 5 years you get 6.5 hours off every 2 weeks, but after 30+ years you get 12 hours off every two weeks). It steps up every 5 years. - Great work-life balance. If you need time off, you will get it. If you need to go to the doctor you will be allowed to go. If you get there before 9am, you will be only one there. If you stay after 5pm, you will be the only one there. - Yearly bonus package up to 4 weeks of salary. It will never be a full 4 weeks as it is based on company financials and your performance. Your performance is purely subjective and everyone will come out and say that upper management does not like to see anyone getting the full amount. So even though you can get 4 weeks technically, do not hold your breath. - The Lake Mary/Heathrow area is awesome. - Most of the coworkers are very fun. And some of the smartest people around.
Cons
- There is a habit of sticking with the norm, and the norm is 10-15 years outdated. This means you will write code in Visual Studio from 1998 and be occasionally asked to write Java 1.1 code because they cannot update to a newer flavor due to being shackled to hardware vendors. - Your immediate manager will more than likely be incompetent and lack necessary soft skills. Sure, he would have been a good programmer, but will be a very ineffective manager. - Your manager will not be open to new suggestions to change things, even if it is just to make a prototype. If you want something developed for the better good of the company, you have to do it in your spare time. And even after you do it in your spare time, you better take it to your manager's boss instead of just your manager. - You will be constantly doing the job of Club Support, so I hope you like support work. - It will take weeks if not months to get anything done, even if management has approved. The sea of red tape is overly much. Talk of changing any of these policies so signatures are done online instead of slow inter-office mail will fall on deaf ears. After all, this was the norm 15 years ago. - The equipment is horrible. Your computer will be 6 years old and have a 40GB hard drive. It will take it 30 minutes to start up, but you will be required to shut down every night and start every morning to save power. Be prepared to spend 30 minutes every morning staring at the computer screen waiting for it to boot. The chairs also do not have backs and are 10 years old. There was a chair-sale 5 years ago and the ones people didn't buy due to them being in such bad shape are now the ones you will be required to sit in for meetings and while at your cube. So many people complain of back pains they just bring their own chairs in and chain them down so they cant be stolen. - The pay is a lot lower than jobs you would find elsewhere. - The turnover is very high. If you stay 4 years you are an old timer. - You will be asked to do something, and then when you get halfway into it the requirements are changed. And I don't mean tweaked, I mean completely changed. And thats if the project is not scrapped completely. A big joke is that we move 90mph, but most of that time is spent going sideways instead of forward to real progress.