Good exposure to the corporate world for new employees, bad for retention and growth.
Pros
Itron has been around a long time, and has weathered a variety of hardships. The company itself is stable, though job stability can vary between groups. In the IT organization, job stability is fairly solid these days. The company is undoubtedly successful, and many of the groups within Itron function beautifully.
Cons
There is practically no advancement potential within Itron IT. The IT groups went through a reorganization which worked beautifully on paper. In actuality, the organization is in the worst state ever. The bulk of the central IT team is inexperienced, or have mediocre skillsets. Advancement is based on where you work, not what you know, and promotions are inconsistent. A Technical Support Analyst II can easily know substantially more than a Technical Support Analyst III, but the organization will refuse to recognize the superior knowledge, based on where they work. IT project management is a horrible joke. Projects are left unfinished or incomplete, and some systems most companies consider critical, are mismanaged and/or changed yearly (the IT ticketing system, for example).
