Pros
- Flexible hours, can leave for 2-3 hours in the middle of the day and make it up later that evening, or just use 2 hours of vacation - Not really any pressure to ever put in more than 40 hours, though lots of others seem to do so - Volleyball nets, softball field, and basketball court on the campus; several groups typically play at lunch or after work - Options to work from home - Great retirement benefits - Plenty of paid time off - Everyone has an office (shared with one other person) - no cubes except for office administrators; this includes ceiling-high walls, doors, and even the lowest level employees can end up with a window if they're lucky - You have a say about the type of work that you do. If you want to do server code, just tell your boss or ask your co-workers if they know any projects looking for server coders. If you want to switch to user interfaces, ask around for a project that needs a UI coder. Lots of projects are looking for people year-round so usually you can find something vaguely in line with your interests.
Cons
- Getting your first promotion is mostly based on time spent at the company, typically 3-5 years depending on your manager. Getting a second promotion can take as long as 10-15 years. - Raises aren't too significant and sometimes don't even cover cost of living - The annual ratings process is in such a way that if everyone does an equal job, some will arbitrarily get chosen to be top performers and others will get chosen to have needed improvement; there's no way for everyone to get good reviews if everyone does good work - While some of the work is interesting, it's not exactly the most exciting of fields to get into