Pros
Stability - Decades-long government contracts ensure that company always has business. EWW - Typically available when requested. Work/Life Balance - Work hardly ever comes home. Flexible hours. Ideal for those mid-career/with families. Access to Public Transport - Caltrain station is >10 min walk away from site. Strong Name Recognition - Helps boost your resume when you inevitably leave in 1-2 years (or less).
Cons
Below Average Compensation for Bay Area Bait & Switch Hiring Tactics - Commonplace for employees to be hired under one job description and work for over a year in a completely unrelated area. Prison Office Aesthetic - Office spaces are makeshift compartments located deep within dilapidated, Cold War-era warehouses with little to no natural light. Combined with the barbed wire fencing and omnipresent security and cameras, the Sunnyvale site can feel like a prison (more on this later). Poorly Equipped for Multibillion Dollar Company - Engineering laptops were in short supply long before the pandemic, with the problem only worsening afterwards. Management forced many to work onsite during the pandemic on computer tasks that could easily have been done at home. In general, technology and procedures lagging behind current industry practices by decades in some places. Poor Project Management, Feast and Famine Work - Meetings exist not as a medium through which teammates can collaborate and brainstorm solutions but as public interrogations. Work comes either very slowly or all at once (likely due to turnover). Deadlines often unclear or can shift drastically, and the only answer managers ever have when a problem arises is to provide more overtime. Lack of Inter-team Cooperation and Silos - Rugged individualism is the expectation. Silos exist between teams and even between direct teammates as veteran employees commonly form cliques. These coworkers will make you feel like you’re putting the weight of the world on their shoulders when you ask for a simple status update and will often tell you to ask someone else. High Emphasis on Hours not Output + Culture of Being Constantly Watched - Every minute worked must be recorded and reported in near exact time increments. Moreover, management requires employees to stay onsite for EXACTLY 8-9 hours, even when the workload is low. During a global pandemic, management pushed employees to come onsite 5 days per week. Teammates that grind and finish their work early can’t even leave 10 minutes early or take a 10 minute walk without fear of being reported, creating a culture of fear and divisiveness and encouraging employees to drag out their work just to meet the exact time requirements. Taking a 15 minute walk to destress feels like a crime, and, combined with the fact that work can come at a snail’s pace, manifests the aforementioned feeling of sitting in a prison even further. High, Hurtful Turnover - All of the above contributes to an atrocious turnover rate, both at the contributor and middle management level. Because work is so compartmentalized and cross-training and documentation is so rare, individuals that leave often have no replacement, and those projects left behind often become an indiscernible mess to whatever unlucky soul is chosen to put out the fire (these unlucky souls are often the next to leave).
