Pros
Very few; pays fair market salaries and does not try to work employees to death (not a sweatshop).
Cons
Lots, lately. In the last few years the management in software development has become terrible, to the point where it's unbearable. While a few years ago when I started there was light management with a lot of decision-making done within the teams, there were additional layers of management added and those guys created an "us" vs. "them" culture, in which the management decides and forces the decisions on the teams. There is 0 consultation, the decisions are simply communicated and expected to be followed without discussion. Those decisions cover everything from who moves to what team, what to work on now, sitting layout, when something needs to be ready, etc. Except for low-level technical decisions, everything else is decided by management and you get informed. You may be in team A today but next week you need to move to team B because somebody said so. Management does quarterly reviews with the team members, but those are NEVER asked for feedback about the manager. It only goes one way. There is no time for research or additional (self)training - you are always expected to work on something given to you and you may only research something that is directly needed for your current task, and then this is strictly timeboxed. Training is a joke - never happened. They tell you at the interview that yes, there is a budget, but that never gets used. I've heard from colleagues that are still with the company that lately you have to do your task within 20% of the initial estimate, otherwise you're doing something wrong. Also heard that lots of developers have left or trying to leave. From what I understood there are very few senior developers left, so there aren't that many people you can learn from. Regardless, the level of motivation and engagement was very low, and management reacted to this by putting even more controls in place (tracking time worked on each individual ticket, and you were scolded if you forgot, etc) which as a result motivated people even less. Managers at each level seem to be more interested in looking good to his superior and "stakeholders" instead of trying to work for and with the their teams. A lot of effort is spent in "checking boxes" and advertising stuff "done" (on paper) instead of focusing on really getting them done. The perception is apparently a lot more important than reality. There is a lot of "stop-an-go" and "there was a change of priorities, stop working on this, work on that now". This is very demotivating. Conclusion: I would not recommend this to a friend except for an urgent need to pay bills. If you're passionate, interested and involved, you can find better places. I know I did, good luck to you.
