Pros
This company has long been a shining star in "work/life balance" for its employees. In many divisions there is a strong emphasis on allowing employees to work from home a couple days a week, and other flexible work schedules. Benefits are solid (but not great) with a 401k plan, mediocre health insurance, and even a small pension. Within select divisions, some solid managers remain, and strive to make decisions that benefit both the customer and the employees working under them (more on this in "Cons"). There is a good opportunity for development and career progression here, but it has just as much to do with playing the "political" game as it does with developing your skill-set. That said, if you work hard, express interest in moving to a new role, most middle-managers do a good job of helping you get there!
Cons
This company has begun to slide - many of the old HP family have begun to retire, and have been replaced by management that has lost sight of "innovation." Instead, they have opted to go the way of many other big corporate tech entities, they simply purchase their new technologies and loosely integrate them into the "Agilent" brand. When I was hired 3 years ago, there was a sense of stability, family, and shared pride in the company. Traditionally, Agilent had viewed itself a "flat" organization, where even someone working as a low-level individual contributor could voice their concerns to a Vice President, or even the CEO, and feel their voice was heard. Those days are long gone. The culture has been rapidly sliding to one of bitterness, where individual contributors see very little appreciation for their efforts and upper management cares only about padding their own bonuses and the bottom line/shareholders. The company is re-organizing itself into a more industry-standard corporate hierarchy of "managers-managing-managers" with very few individual contributors at the bottom actually doing any work. This extremely top-heavy set-up leaves most managers more concerned with justifying their own existence, rather than actually managing their teams, leaving the individual contributors feeling lost, and fearing for their jobs. Upper management (VP-level and above) is only concerned about wall street/stock value. They have completely lost site of the customer, and their employees. The company is very "lean" on individual contributors, leaving those in these roles overworked, and stretched too thin to really provide the customer with a good experience or solution. The result is that customer satisfaction is slipping, which will ultimately affect sales, and the stock price that they hold so dear. 3 years ago, I would have recommended this company to a friend in a heartbeat. I'd be less and less inclined to do so in the current climate.