Always looking ahead, existing business secondary
Pros
Developers get opportunities to do software engineering on a regular basis. Most development teams still have the proverbial 80% maintenance, 20% new code split. Developers can get a lot of opportunities to interact with the business owners. Dev leads are usually very open to sharing requirements gathering, etc., with developers. You can have direct access to the people who staff the Network Operations Center, to the software architecture team, to the project (business) owners, and management. The organization is very good about sharing information if you ask (there aren't a lot of fiefdoms). We regularly (if slowly) incorporate new frameworks and technologies into our development environment. You can have a company-wide impact.
Cons
This has been the busiest, most engaging place in which I've ever worked, but I know other people on other teams don't have that experience. The reason I've been busy lately is that most of my team was moved to new project teams, leaving two people to continue development on a schedule designed for six people. The focus on new-new-new projects and the disconcerting tendency to move 50% of the IT staff to the current hot project means older software may be neglected for years, until the business, CSRs, or the partners scream loudly and often enough to get someone (or some team) tasked with implementing a hurried fix. It's tough to recruit full-time employees to the company because it's in Salt Lake City. A lot of people don't want to move to the "middle of nowhere" and don't want to be paid below market-leading wages. When I was hired, Overstock claimed to pay top dollar for developers in the Salt Lake Valley but can't compete in 2013 when other companies (like Goldman Sachs) offer 20% more. Your success, promotions, raises, etc., are tied to how much your dev lead and director like you. That's true everywhere but it's disappointing that low-level managers don't get better training in evaluation and coaching and that some dev leads are kept in positions they're ill-suited to fill. With the recent (announced April 2013) changes to the IT organization management structure some of these problems may begin to be alleviated. Promotions to new positions (not just a title) are uncommon and are based on popularity, so if you're looking to move up you'll need to practice your politics. The company is rapidly building out office space in their SLC warehouse/call center location and relocating development and business teams there. With the bifurcated company Presidency (one based in Cottonwood Heights, one based in West Valley) a lot of teams are being moved "voluntarily." (Seriously? Would you say no?) This has been unpopular with people who chose to live near Cottonwood Heights to be close to work. I feel like the IT organization is not longer committed to learning, developing employees, and improvement, all characteristics that attracted me to the position in the first place.
