Pros
Was given real world experience, and received some very helpful guidance. You are exposed to a large code base, and given the opportunity to make changes or additions.
Cons
The training process is very extensive. The beginning part of it is the worst. It was a series of online classes, with useless information. I read them very carefully, and took notes. I did this because I was unsure if I would be tested on this information, or if I would use it later. Turns out there was no test, and it was all completely useless. After this part of the training the rest is pretty useful. It did adequately prepare me for my job, and it took much less time to complete. The job itself was very boring. In my case, you were locked into essentially one group of technologies, and not allowed to branch out. The technologies used in my group were Java, HTML, CSS, and SQL. AO only uses IBM systems, so everything works a little different than what you are used to. If you're looking to advance your skills, this is not the place for you. Work is very repetitive, and deals with the same things every day. Technologies used are very outdated. Part of my group was still developing in COBOL. It was astonishing. Management can be very passive aggressive. They would often not disclose expectations for assignments. However they would be surprised when assignments weren't done with those expectations met. It was very odd. Definitely not a good experience overall. It showed me the type of place I do not want to work after graduation.
