Absolutely avoid the IT (Production Operations) team. Upper management of the team is littler more than an incompetent "old boys club". They look out for each other, and no one else. You will be placed in no-win situations, and be thrown under the bus when push comes to shove. I was once placed in a scenario where my manager knew exactly what I was doing before I did it, but proceeded hang me out to dry (denied any knowledge of my efforts) once higher ups caught wind.
There are many custom production systems with little, or more often no documentation which you will be immediately responsible for. There is no evaluation, ramp up, or on-boarding period for new employees, you are thrown immediately into the fire, and expected to perform with little room for mistakes. When mistakes are made, you will be threatened with a performance plan that is nothing more than a formality for firing you, this happened to several of my peers, some fired for reasons not defined on their performance plan, and others who left on their own.
Management fosters an insanely political environment by using carrot-string tactics which never come to fruition. There is a lot of back-stabbing and sabotaging among the groups within the overall team. Very little in the way of collaboration, it's actually the exact opposite. Upper management actively engages in this behavior as well.
