Pros
I have absolutely no interest in corporate finance or insurance, so when I had my phone screening interview, I asked if the people enjoyed working there. I was very skeptical that they said they loved it, but I had been unemployed for 16+ months, so I'd take what I could get. They weren't wrong. I have no idea how people use our product (though admittedly this is not good for my career) but I love making it pretty, run fast, and most of all, easy to use. Other pros: • I'm transgender, and never once has anyone treated me poorly. I've never been misgendered. (This is not the case for a non-binary friend who lives in Florida.) • My pay is decent compared to the industry standard for the position I'm in. (Granted, with my experience, I *should* have been hired at a higher level--I'm kind of a big fish in a small pond, even according to the guy at the top--but like I said, I'd take what I could get.) • Most everyone is a pleasure to work with, and the few that aren't, aren't bad. • Agile-ish release cadence, CI/CD done well. • A few months ago, I had to take a short term medical leave of absence for 7 weeks. I was shown nothing but support at every level. • As far as I can tell, hiring practices are equal across genders/races/faiths/etc, but I also haven't seen a Black person on my team yet. Genders and faiths seem to be well-represented, though I'm the only woman on the software development team (this could be because so few women are software developers to begin with--boo, hiss), and I don't believe there is one on the Ops team. QA is almost if not entirely women (and that position is paid less). • 37.5 hour work week rather than the "traditional" 40. • Opportunity to move to various branches in other countries.
Cons
• My PTO is well below industry standard for software engineers. At Microsoft right out of college, I had a total of 5 weeks + 2 floating holidays combined vacation and sick leave. At Milliman with 13 years of experience, I have a combined 3 weeks + 2 floating holidays. As someone with depression and chronic illnesses, I take ALL of my PTO as sick leave. PTO is not based on level but on how long you've been at the company. I won't get an increase until I've been there 5 years. And honestly, I doubt I'll be here quite that long, for reasons not related to the company. • As an odd person who is content with my salary and doesn't feel the need to get promoted to improve it (though increased PTO would be nice)--someone not at all career-driven--I tend to believe people should be paid according to the quality of their work (as opposed to achieving the goals they are forced to set every 6 months--or is it 3? It's never been quite clear to me) and how essential their job is to the company. In my opinion, a QA person with no coding skills is just as important as a software developer--after all, both are required to ship a product, and *I* certainly wouldn't want to do their job--but someone I know with roughly equal quality of work is paid 60% what I am. • Some systemic sexism; I can't speak to racism, as I am white. However, I'm in the unique position of having grown up with 30 years of male privilege. I can tell firsthand when someone treats me with less respect than they would have if they saw me as male. For instance, a couple days ago, I felt a man either wasn't listening to me or wasn't trusting that I knew what I was talking about as much as if I had been male. I don't know if this is a company problem, a problem with that specific employee, or just a societal problem. That said, most of the people, especially the management, are very open to feedback about such things, whether constructive or critical.