• Compensation is very low. You’re told the ESOP is “the long game,” but that doesn’t help with rent, groceries, or rising insurance costs today.
• Every day feels like “Did you get the memo?” day. You might be asked to outline a data strategy using SharePoint…through Internet Explorer…in 2025.
• Promotion logic is opaque. Career progression seems more aligned to seniority, military proximity, or PowerPoint aesthetics than technical merit.
• Leadership doesn’t speak code. Expect to explain REST APIs to someone who confuses JSON with a meal replacement bar.
• Tooling is retro. Think Excel (non-cloud), C, C++, Ada, air-gapped environments, and running five app versions just to get one dataset to open.
• Career growth is DIY. Want to learn Python? Hope you’re fine Ask Jeeves’ing it on your lunch break.
• Contractual stability is murky. Base years end. Option years float. Forecasting your future feels like guesswork.
• COTS recommendations are often ignored. Even when affordable, tested solutions exist, the default is to reinvent the wheel and usually not in round form.