Pros
They have a decent benefits package and their pay is at or just below industry standards. The Blacksburg location is right on VT campus, meaning that you're centrally located. There is a weekly developers' meeting, but you'd better keep your head down during it. Once a month there's an extra-company activity where food and drinks are paid for. Equipment-wise, state of the art. Dual screen monitors, Dell laptops with docking stations and they don't get crazy about you using it as your own laptop. The network is well thought out, the VPN is well-configured so, if you're working from him, it's easy. They give Christmas bonuses.
Cons
It is a my-way-or-the-highway, personal-initiative squelching experience. I was actually let go over using the wrong notation when creating variables private to a web page, because that wasn't the way that the program manager liked to create variables. There was no comment on the code I created. The place is exceptionally narrow at the top - there is nowhere to go here until someone quits or dies. Firing occurs without notice - you don't get a review, your boss doesn't like what you did so you're out. As for the work environment: head-down programming. You've got your task, so shut up and do it. This year they screwed up taxes for everyone in the company by leaving off Christmas bonuses, meaning that a good portion of the employees filed an incorrect return and would have to refile. They're trying to start a .Net developers' division. The lead is a mediocre programmer but probably the most accomplished micro-manager of his time. This is particularly bad because he doesn't spec out the work he wants done. Expect directives like, "Do it like it is in this other program I wrote, but not really" and then corrections by Outlook email (if he doesn't take your code over himself and rewrite it without warning you).
