Stay away from IT and the PMO Departments
Pros
Decent benefits. Some really great co-workers (if they last).
Cons
Two of the worst run departments I've ever seen in my career - IT and the PMO (all headed up by the CIO). They typically promote the worst people into management which only makes the departments that much worse (there are some good managers but they have no 'voice' to make changes in the departments as upper management doesn't care). They will spend millions of $$ on creating applications that don't work; aren't useful to the end users and waste valuable time and resources (yet they keep putting money into these failed systems). They implemented 'Agile' yet providing little to no training for the business side of the ideology. Not to mention that it wasn't a good methodology for many of the projects they were implementing. Projects that should have taken 6 months to a year to fully implement were still in the beginning stages after 2 YEARS (I'm not even exaggerating). The PMO had some great PMs and BAs but they don't typically last long unless out of necessity or convenience. Almost the entire PMO left when I had only been with the company for 3 months (huge red flag and the department didn't get any better.... it got worse with the same person leading it.) The IT department is one of the worst I've ever seen. All of the best developers and programmers end up leaving. There is no meta data; no governance; multiple systems that do the same things and are mostly 'home grown' (with little or no documentation). IT and the PMO should work together harmoniously but they don't. They are often pitted against one another making for a very poor working environment and very poorly run projects (no matter how good the PM, BA or even the developers). Upper management gets these grandiose ideas to implement projects that do not work well and are not accepted well by the actual people who have to use the applications or systems. Not to mention a huge lack in training for these poor people. I wish I could say it was a good CRO IT experience but it wasn't. With the lack of governance and poor quality in IT, you'd be better off reading a book if you want to get into the industry or getting a job with a company that isn't constantly in utter chaos. Unfortunately it won't change since the same people are involved in ruining... I mean running these departments. My best advice is to stay away from these two departments and the company overall. (actually... literally RUN away if you see a job posting!)