Pros
- my particular portal has some great people - ability to work on apps and sites that are used by thousands to millions of people - yearly tech conference is a big reward for the tech team, well done - opportunity to work with state and local government to make an impact, something that is hard to do working for a normal corporation - company has no debt and is financially very solid - free health insurance is fantastic - company promotes charitable opportunities and activities - most existing egov sites and applications are in dire need of rebuilds, therefore there is enormous potential for continued work for NIC
Cons
- come in as high as possible bc raises are mediocre unless you get promoted to Director of Development, Technology, Operations, or GM-those are the only positions that are well-paid - company views itself as a technology company but the project managers and operations staff are for the most part technology-ignorant; they tend to be hindrances to a quality product - some people who come in with little to no experience are lifted up very quickly and put in important leadership roles without earning them; the result is that you often have people a few years out of college in charge of people with a decade or more of expertise with no real understanding of what they accomplished to get such a prestigious position. - the awards that the company covets are primarily the results of the creative leaders in each portal yet there is no career path for that important group of people, it is a literal dead end - operations staff are all given offices while the developers and creative staff are stuck in tiny cubes-it is disrespectful and creates a resentment culture. It is also counter-productive as tech staff needs the room for equipment and white boards and privacy (silence!) to work 1000 times more than any operations staff member
