Pros
Forward-thinking company with a global presence. Willing to spend money on new technology and method development in order to stay competitive. Modern facilities. Professional staff. Good place for new college grads to get some hands-on, production-lab experience. *Excellent retirement plan (401k + matching). See cons for more details.
Cons
Questionable respect towards senior employees. The tendency of firing 20+ year employees who have excellent work records and vast amounts of applicable experience is happening at an alarming rate. It's disheartening when you consider the decades of hard work and sacrifice (countless weekends, holidays, and thousands of hours of unpaid overtime for many salaried workers) performed honorably and without question in order to satisfy company goals. I wouldn't necessarily expect this company to return the favor, and honor the goal of the employee who desires to work to full retirement age, especially if you are already working in the lab at a competitive salary. Receiving even minimum pay raises for the next 10 years could promote you to "overpaid' status in the eyes of corporate bean-counters. Then, you might just become another "business decision" for them when the need to hire arises and it is determined that too much of the payroll is tied up in older employees. This especially applies to senior employees working at labs that have been recently acquired . *Note: Only really pays off if you are allowed to retire.
