Pros
Most of the Pros are fairly superficial. Cool buildings, nice cafeteria, casual dress, etc. These are the Pros that really draw in recent college grads. It drew me in too, but in the end they do not matter. Other Pros are the 5-year sabbatical, 401 k match, and stock appreciation rights. Unfortunately, in order for those things to fully vest you need to be there 5 years... Good luck with that one. Most people are friendly, helpful, and nice. Good pay out of school, especially if you have a non technical degree Able to take on projects you feel passionately about (programming, training, organizing events, etc) I enjoyed the type of work that I did. I really liked my customer(s) and helping them using debugging and creative problem solving. The work was varied and kept me thinking. However, when given too much to do (3 customers) it was just too overwhelming and I was unable to keep all three happy, which made me feel awful. I really wanted to do a good job, but was not given the resources to do so. My first 2 years were pretty enjoyable, but it went downhill fast after that. I lasted 4.25 years in total before I found a new job and moved on to greener pastures.
Cons
The average number of hours worked by my team was 47/wk. Anytime I worked less than 47 hours (like Thanksgiving week) I was reminded that I really needed to be "at or above average." So the average was continually rising... There was once a mini seminar held on work-life balance for my division. It basically suggested working from home after putting in 8-9 hours at your desk. Also, as a salaried employee you are asked to log all of your time in 15 minute increments and very, very specifically. This is pretty strange, but the only way your manager will probably manage you. Management is promoted based on hours worked/technical skills, not management skills or people skills. Most managers in my department were incapable of speaking in front of a group of more than 5 people - not exactly fine leadership. Feedback is few and far between, until you make a mistake and then it will be brought up continually for several years. Documentation used to be a huge problem, it is getting better, but knowledge is still an issue since the average tenure of employees hovers between 2 and 3 years. Non-compete is very strict Programming language is severely out-dated Job titles do not show the levels of responsibility and complexity that your job entails. Work hours are supposed to be flexible, but if you aren't in by 8 am and a customer complains, then the hours suddenly become non-flexible. I often answered pages at home between 6 am and 7 pm. You are expected to be reachable 24 hours a day, but not provided with a cell phone. Most individuals must work from home to keep up, but are not provided with a computer. Software is very buggy (think 5,000+ patches per release, and at least half of the bugs aren't fixed) and often quickly/poorly installed, so in TS your job often becomes crisis control. Having multiple customers in crisis mode for a clinical application is very stressful and a frequent occurrence.
