Pros
* Great benefits package * Great 401k matching * Great bonuses during great years * Good bonuses during mediocre years * Most teams seem to have a very good work life balance * Transferring between teams is allowed * Great automated testing harness * Regular desktop PC upgrades with high end systems * Dual monitors (one 24 and one 22 inch) for developers and quality engineers * Mac developers get a 27" iMac * The company has a lot of social events (they are called Tuesdays, but don't always fall on Tuesdays) * Great anniversary trips * Great summer outing every year * Really good requirements and functional specification before development begins so as to avoid having to rewrite too much code as you progress * Very good deadline setting for new features. They do not attempt to force things in that would end up being rushed and sloppy. Instead the focus switches to fixing bugs in the other new features for a given release so that the overall quality is high. Trust me, this is a great way to work and leads to great morale and great work life balance. * Managers almost always come from within * Many junior level new hires come from their Engineering Development Group which leads to having co-workers who have knowledge of a wide range of the product line and customer viewpoint * Usability is a huge focus * When the economy gets tough, they do not layoff because they are private
Cons
* No MBTA subsidy * New ideas for products or features seem to only come from a select group and so it doesn't feel like you can be as creative as you would hope * Managers are promoted on their project management rather than their people skills. It would be better to have managers manage team leads who would do the project management, and have the managers still do regular duties (development or whatever on the side) in addition to management. Team leads should handle project management, managers should handle people management, and they are two very different skill sets. * There is supposed to be 360 review, but rarely do you get to review your manager * The parking spots are extremely narrow and cars are regularly damaged by other cars. It seems like 2-4 people post about their cars being damaged per month asking for the person who hit them to please step forward. * The working from home policy is VERY restrictive. * The office closes for almost nothing. We were open even the day of hurricane Sandy. We closed during the afternoon just as things were starting to get crazy outside. * Base pay seems kind of low