Challenging Work; Crazy Environment; No Management Support
Pros
The work was challenging; I was never bored. The on-site facilities (fitness center, cafeteria, company store) are new and well maintained. The 401(k) plan is 100% matched up to 6% of the employee salary: that's unheard of! The recent annual bonus and profit sharing amounts have been generous.
Cons
Never got a chance to be proactive. The project was based on 2 third-party software applications that were over-customized to perform tasks it was never originally intended to perform. The original installation was held together with Unix shell scripts and manual efforts assigned to the off-shore development team. Further enhancements continue to strain these delicately-balanced fixes. Immediate project management only got involved during a system incident (which occurred nearly monthly); otherwise, they were nowhere to be seen or heard from. Promotions did not appear to be merit-based, but whether you were a part of the good old boy network. Newer cubicles are now smaller: in my area, an aisle of 15 cubicles were resized to 19 cubicles.
