Lots of different things to do, good people, but sub-par pay, benefits, and work-life balance
Pros
There is a lot of variety in the work, depending on the team, and each group has some autonomy in making development decisions. The people are friendly, professional, and generally helpful. The corporate campus (in Meridian) is a fairly pleasant place to work, nicely landscaped, and with a good cafeteria. Some of the media-related events (like a BBQ sponsored by HBO to mark the season premiere of True Blood) are fun diversions.
Cons
The "core expectations" are a relic from another century. Granted, the corporate recruiters are very upfront about this, so no one can say they weren't warned when applying there, but the inflexibility they introduce into work/life becomes unacceptable after a while. Working from home for any reason, even weather-related, is not allowed. (VPN access is still provided, so that teams can handle after-hours support.) The pay and benefits are not up to market standards. The company apparently has no desire to retain top talent. The most useful benefit was the HSA; Dish will contribute to employee HSA accounts if they take a simple health survey and make a tobacco-free pledge. IT is also badly balkanized; each group jealously guards its turf, and getting a request submitted and completed virtually requires a court order. It shouldn't take three weeks for a software developer to get a laptop set up with the proper software, access to development and test servers, intranet, email, etc....but it did.
