Pros
- Some extremely smart and hard-working people will very much inspire you to learn a lot! - Managers care a lot about your success and will go the extra mile to put you in a position to grow your career and pick up valuable skills! - You are encouraged to learn new science and engineering skills and topics! Senior scientists and engineers will often inquire about what you are interested in point you to relevant resources as well. - Relaxed environment with flexible schedule. Office culture emphasizes getting deliverables done, not clocking in meaningless hours!
Cons
- Some people in the past have been assigned to teams whose work-area and expertise do not align with the assignee's interests, which has resulted in de-motivated employees. - Most senior staff come from technical backgrounds, and while they have excellent technical skills, not all are great managers. If your manager is not giving you adequate support, you will need to be highly self-motivated to stay productive. - Annual cycle of proposal writing to maintain business revenue can be taxing for those who aren't used to the proposal process and diverts a lot of valuable scientists and engineers from performing actual software development.