Pros
For a kid just starting fresh out of school, it's a great and supportive environment to be introduced to the professional world. Most of the workforce is pretty young, and there's a very healthy team culture (At least at the Lebanon office). You're given a lot of flexibility. I was not "thrown to the wolves" when I started, and was given plenty of time and support to learn the ropes. The lower and middle management at the Lebanon office were pretty solid prior to the organizational restructuring. Team leads that were present on-site were helpful, supportive, and understanding. Managers were competent and fair. The share purchase plan is nice. The 401k match is mediocre. Lots of paid holidays, and decent PTO. Unlimited sick leave. Ability to work remote. Good starting salary if you AREN'T a computer programmer. Salary for accountants and business types is pretty competitive. Annual raises are almost guaranteed. Most people get around 3% yearly. Some guys only got 2%. How this is distributed seems pretty arbitrary. There's usually a Christmas Bonus (Profit sharing) to the tune of 800+ dollars. Despite the insistence of some of the other reviewers, the cost of living in the area is quite low. Rent is about average (400-600 for a 2br apt), while property value is ridiculously low by national standards. A lot of really decent homes can be had for around 100k. Just don't be dumb with your money. 45k is quite enough to support you in comfort. Getting fired is an act of congress. During my time at CGI, a few people got laid off, but nobody was fired for performance. This is both a pro (job security), and a con (freeloaders).
Cons
The pay is very low for programmers (Maybe 30% below local market). Programmers and Business Analysts get paid the same starting salary. For a new graduate, it's really not that bad, especially if you live with room mates, and honestly the experience was worth it to me. The healthcare is godawful. The HSA plan CGI uses has a 3500(?) dollar deductible/out of pocket max. 7k for a family. This is devastating if you get sick, or have recurring medical costs. The plan really only pays off financially if you get cancer, or hit by a bus. No prescription coverage. Since a lot of families around here are single income, this is a killer. This was my main drive to leave. Work-life balance was great when I started, but towards the end of my time at CGI I was regularly working 70-80 hour weeks. Despite the Lebanon VA stationed managers being pretty good, they are extremely limited in their authority and don't have the power to actually affect positive change. Lots of bureaucracy. An organizational restructuring took the larger, more generalized teams, and broke them down to maybe a dozen smaller, specialized teams. This forced management to create a bunch more Team Leads for each of the smaller teams. Some of these Team Leads were... highly unfit. In addition, many of these leads were full-time Work-From-Home, or worked in Fairfax. This made them inaccessible at times, unavailable to assist struggling team members, or caused weird political issues since they really only were in touch with us when something went wrong. Their impressions of many team members were badly skewed by this. The people we actually worked closely with on a daily basis weren't given any voice in our annual reviews. The disconnect between superiors and subordinates caused a lot of tension. Despite the abundance of team leads, there isn't really much opportunity to advance. The structure of the company is overall pretty flat, and there's no pay incentive for promotions. Senior consultants get a slightly better 401k and share purchase plan. Because of the issues mentioned above, CGI Federal is becoming a stepping-stone. Very few people I knew there had plans to stay.