Pros
A lot of my coworkers and direct managers were really intelligent and friendly. They were readily available to answer questions and went out of their way to give me interesting tasks. The few tasks that I did get were challenging but enjoyable. Work-life balance is nice, I never once had to work more than 40 hours a week and I could work longer hours earlier in the week to leave early on Friday.
Cons
My biggest complaint was the lack of structure. No expectations were set for me. I could spend an entire day doing absolutely nothing and nobody would blink an eye. Of course, keeping busy is as much the employee's responsibility as it is the manager's. I would try to read textbooks or watch coding tutorials, but it was hard to stay motivated because I had no idea when I would actually use the skills I was practicing. I certainly could have brought up my lack of work, but I was afraid that if I was honest about how little I had to do, people would think I was expendable and just get rid of my position. I think if a manager had worked with me to set goals and given me more tasks, I would have felt more motivated to spend any downtime studying on my own or hunting down new work.
