Pros
Good employee communication. Departments generally worked well together. Projects were challenging. Core discipline of design engineering is still done in-house, in the USA. For a small mid-size company, there are a decent number of departments to choose from if you want to try to transfer Compensation okay
Cons
After working at SEL for 6 years then leaving for another engineering company, I can share my perspective. What got SEL to where it is now hinders it from growing further. The technical competence its founder was known for, and that translated to its hiring practices, now gives it a very challenging position in a number of ways. My company won't purchase SEL products, not because they're not good products or they're not supported (they have an excellent warranty), but because their people often carry a "higher than though" attitude, even with customers. In the company there was definitely a certain kind of technical elitism that abounded. People were judged by their ability to regurgitate on-the-spot answers to technical questions, with ultimate accuracy. People skills, however, are often overlooked completely. I was routinely considered "less than" because of my refusal to participate in petty technical quibbles with other engineers. The culture is rife with this, and it's not a good place to be if you care about harmony with coworkers. This is exacerbated by the company's failed work-life balance attempts. Employees on my program were often "sequestered" - forced to work massive amounts of overtime when schedulers failed to properly estimate a product's release date. Engineering was forced to make up the difference with their family time. With increasing outsourcing to SEL's Mexico plant a regular phenomenon, I can't really call this a fully American company anymore either. I would not recommend working at SEL because of its culture, and poor handling of work/life balance.
