Pros
Scheduling is really up to engineer to deal with customer. Private sector is more of 9-5, education sector is mostly easy. Work with world class instrumentation, leader in analytical sciences. Very prestigious name. Get to rack up all of the frequent points and miles from airlines, hotels and rentals. Fellow engineers are hard working and always willing to help.
Cons
Where to start. Management is focused on end of quarter and end of month revenue reports. Service gets pushed aside for new instrument sign off. Can't report to shareholders unless it's signed off. Really irks customer when we can't show up for service calls, because we are too busy trying to sign off on new instruments. New parts never ship together and seems like there is always partial sign offs. Company is very top heavy in the upper management tier, VP of this, VP of that. Company seems to make more money than the previous year for some time now, but no raises or bonuses. Gone are the days of company picnics and social gatherings. Successful company gobbles up smaller outfits but original engineers get "trained" to work on newer instruments. No pay raise or any incentives. Just more work atop of original responsibilities. Training is a joke. Mostly on the fly while at customer labs. Often with customer looking over your shoulder wondering if they know what the hell you are doing. New SAP is a joke. Parts are never in stock or trickle in causing return trips. Looks really bad on engineer onsite. Then takes you 3 hrs to do all paperwork involved in order to keep SAP happy, if not you hear from 3 different managers. (Ever seen Office Space, yeah like that). Sales always promises all sorts of nearly impossible specs or setups. It's up to engineer to follow through while onsite. Customers hate that, engineers hate that. We then have order correct parts and make things work on the fly. Way too much traveling. Most of engineers are divorced or close to it. Not very many happy spouses around. One can easily get burnt out, but seems like the engineer is disposable. Don't even get a "thanks" after an 80 hr work week. Commission checks never come in on time. There is always some sort of excuse. God forbid we don't sign off at the end of the month. Again, office space scenario. You don't get the sign off you hear from 3 different managers. There's probably way more but writing this makes me want to go drink and drown my sorrows away.