Pros
People - The people that work here are from a wide range of backgrounds and are generally great people. Timely Paycheck - Payroll is consistent and reliable
Cons
Compensation - The rates based on what is available in the Seattle area is laughably low and non-competitive. For the same positions at competitors you can make anywhere from 30-50% more on base salary alone, not including bonuses, stock options and RSUs. If you are looking for "competitive" wages Costco is not the place for you. Yearly Merit Increase - Regardless if you are a labelled as a "high performer" or someone that does absolutely nothing you will both be given the same yearly merit increase that will not exceed 3%. There is no motivation to go above and beyond for Costco as your only reward will be more work and responsibilities of those that do not perform their own job. Bonuses, stock options, discounts, RSUs - There are none of these available for non-managerial positions. - There are no employee discounts on buying Costco stock whatsoever. - There are no discounts in-store, Costco Travel, or other Costco-partnered services. Healthcare Benefits - While the coverage is good on the services and prescriptions it is way too costly for those that are single or couples coverage. Compared to the competition in the Seattle area the health care packages are nearly double for those that are not family based meaning a family of 4+ pay the same as a couple. PTO - Paid time off hours are very low and only increase after long years of tenured service to Costco. Even if you stick it out and accure a reasonable amount of hours with 10+ years of tenure you are locked into taking your PTO within specific windows. There are archaic blackout period when you cannot take your PTO. They claim this is due to an outage that occurred during Black Friday years past, but in actuality it is due to the fact that there is not enough resourcing and staff to accommodate vacations and those on maternity and paternity leave. - The miniscule time you get to take off you are still constantly bombarded with company concerns and other's issues. Management does not covet your time as your own if there is an issue happening. This is also due to no cross-training and low staff resourcing. You have to either turn off your phone or go off the grid to be completely left alone to enjoy your time. Technology - In recent past Costco has decided to double-down in on-premise hardware let alone relying on iSeries/DB2 technology. If you are looking to do new, innovative or engaging work this is not the place for you. If you are done with your IT career, looking to coast, not develop and play as caretaker to archaic dying technology this may be the place for you. - The cloud adoption is slow and reeled back largely depending on the software looking to be migrated. The focus on relying on physical hardware is staggeringly disappointing and the opposite of what the IT industry has been doing for years. - If you are well versed in Azure, Infrastructure as Code, Configuration as Code and other DevOps skill sets this is not the place for you. You will be held back from using and exploring technologies to their fullest by RACI's and siloed teams not willing to expand their knowledge and capabilities. Accountability - There is no accountability within Costco IT. You can bring down the entire network, DNS or Costco.com website with zero repercussions brought upon you. Root cause analysis is not a concept used widely within Costco IT so the same problems happen frequently if not yearly. - The lack of accountability is what perpetuates lazy, incompetent and reckless behavior that contributes to the lack of reliable systems nor the ability to accomplish any project in a timely manner within Costco IT. - The only two ways you will be fired within Costco IT is if you commit a felony on the HQ grounds or eat an M&M before paying at the cafes at the HQ.