This is a publicly traded company and brings along with it all the politics headaches and periodic "Reductions in Force" that accompany any big public company. There's not much point in complaining about it. It's all the same thing that brings all the great benefits and opportunities to work on cool problems.
-You will find that innovation, while valued, is painful and slow however, if you stick with it, there are definitely opportunities to innovate.
-You should be ok with not necessarily having your opinion valued on the larger picture items. There is a corporate direction and that comes from the top, not the bottom in this company. If you can be happy with that and are excited to tackle whatever challenge comes you will be very happy at this company, If you have vision and want to try and make change outside of your group, you will likely be disappointed.
-I think you'll find Autodesk to be much like any large company. If you really want to be able to influence change in an organization, look for a small startup. I can't stress this enough: You will be successful here if you are happy doing your job as part of the big machine and not necessarily being able to see out to where you are going. (regardless of what the "come work here" marketing hype suggests).
-That said, note that there is a lot of internal opportunity for motivated individuals. I've seen developers move to UI, QA people move to sales, developers move to product management, there is a LOT of opportunity here.
