Pros
If you join the elite few, there is some good project level contracting/consulting work out there. You will certainly learn something new while still applying any and all old skills. There are a wide variety of people to work with.
Cons
Benefits are very expensive especially for someone with a family. There are various awards floating around about Applied's benefits, but that is in the context of single employees in specific offices. A lot of the contracts that Applied keeps are akin to staffing agencies. You are actually an employee of company X, but Applied is getting paid for it. This creates a very volatile nature to your work. If the contract dries up, they will say "we will find something else for you", but the something else is too slow, so they let you go. Lastly, they are very old school with their operation bordering on the absurd. Eg. paper time sheets with physical signatures making remote work impossible and physically mailed pay-stubs only to your home address.
