Pros
The benefits and the work-life balance are good (though that might be my group). The work my group did was great. I felt like I was only a few small steps removed from real world impact. I feel much cognitive dissonance for disliking the company because what we work on is so awesome. If you are a person who wants to come to work, do what you need to do as you always have, and then go home at 5 and not think about work anymore, then RTI might be for you. The fact that RTI is made up primarily of employees like this, is what leads to the stagnant work environment.
Cons
There is almost no way to innovate. Smart people will be stifled because at the end of the day, all that matters is getting contracts and fulfilling their requirements. There isn't room (or money) for trying to do things differently or to improve upon old processes. This is more dear to me than most, but RTI's IT systems, infrastructure, equipment, and employees are terrible. An example is that our VPN needed to connect to our internal network is non-functioning at times every day. From what I can tell, they simply don't pay for enough server capacity to handle the required traffic. I often turn it on and off throughout the day for internet to function. RTI is stuck in old ways and have no capacity to change. Instead the illusion of change is created through them making up new corporate initiatives like 'Lead Forward' and 'Dynamic Development' which only serve to subdue employees rather than empower them. We switched to a broadband salary system years ago and it feels bad. The yearly increases are done by moving sliders in some software and are done by managers that might not even work with you on any projects. Recently had a new building built to supposedly bring back our Health Solutions staff to main campus. What happened was they opened a fancy new building where all the upper management moved (and the favored groups), and then 4 months later announced the CLOSURE OF THE OLD BUILDING THAT UPPER MANAGEMENT WAS PREVIOUSLY IN. Then in old worn-down buildings, they are squeezing people in offices and sticking cubicles where they don't belong. Mid-level managers are scared or unwilling to say anything. I can't even get my manager to admit that it is puzzling that they would build a new building to turn around and close another one (mind you this was never announced as the plan).