Pros
Work-life balance for the last 5 years has been excellent. My team and leadership were extremely supportive when I needed to care for a ill family member. Multiple coworkers have had children during my time here and leadership seems to be understanding and flexible from an outside view. Disability + LGBT + other minority groups are run by employees and offer great support and community. The teams I manage are wonderful and my other coworkers, including leadership, are extremely easy to get along with. Reorgs have been ongoing for a few months at this point at least. Lots of kinks to iron out, but this also means there's more opportunity for your voice to be heard. Talk to the right people and you will get support in discussing your suggestions. Don't come with a problem. Come with a problem and potential solutions. The people I speak with encourage growth opportunities, though it can be difficult to get ideas to stick since there's so many teams. With the recent changes in our organization, leadership roles and career paths are more clearly defined which makes career growth a lot more straight-forward. Management is now very responsive and active in requesting feedback and providing regular updates on your progress right now. Quarterly reviews are gone, but I'm unsure how that will impact the schedule in which raises and promotions occur. It's easy to stand out. Communicate clearly, actively work to improve your team dynamic and work structure, lead with empathy, complete your deliverables on time, work with coworkers to compare processes, volunteer for leadership opportunities, use your creativity and problem-solving to smooth out any rough edges. They have no issue pulling existing resources into interviews to sniff out potential new talent for leadership roles. In my experience, they're great at doing so. Come prepared for your interview. Look up the company values and prep yourself to be asked about how they apply to your workflow and attitude. You'll be surrounded by great people.
Cons
I've seen no bonuses, but raises have started to become a regular occurrence again after Covid put a pause on this for about 2 years. Come well equipped with metrics and documentation for situations where you've done well and have gone above and beyond. I've been promoted a few times now. For dev/QA, your manager can help guide you through your career, but you need to also get support from your SM/PO who can help prioritize items with PMs that will help you grow your skillset. Say nothing and you're more likely to get siloed in one area. Advocate for yourself. Help your team leadership advocate for you. Be responsive, communicate your goals, take on new challenges, be consistent, stay on top of process updates from leadership, and be open to feedback. If your team leadership is good, they will be speaking up on your behalf and recommending you for promotions. I've been on the calls. I hear how highly you're spoken about. Help us help you. The entire company is going through ongoing leadership reorg which I feel hopeful about regarding supporting long term change and providing a better product for our clients, but only if everyone in leadership positions, devs and QA all get on the same page. It's an ongoing process, but can still tend to get hectic sometimes as everyone tries to settle into new roles and teams. Leadership roles end up extremely busy during these moves, but they're still responsive when you need help. It's very easy to become bogged down. Your work-life balance will suffer if you do not take a high-level view of your core tasks before volunteering to assist. If you're good at it once, you'll likely be offered (or volun-told) to continue to assist. This can be good or bad. You have to advocate for yourself and for your coworkers. Family first. Work second. Don't feel like you have to choose. Speak up. Reorg was messy. Senior leadership should involve those doing the work when prepping for future changes. Talk to each other. What went well? What didn't? What are the lessons learned?