Pros
The IT shop is fast moving and modern -no ancient mainframes or move-at-snail's-pace project cycles like telecom, finance, health, or gov't contractors.
Cons
As a long term employee (over 10 years), I am sad to say it is not what used to be for women. in the last 5 years, upper management, the CEO, and Senior VPs, only promote men to Directors or above. Before, they used to put substance over style and schmoozing. The new CEO and the newer VPs prefer MEN who are good at telling them what they want to hear, even though they could not lead a team out of a room with a single door. The double standards for women to advance are ridiculous. The bar is set much higher. "A guy tells it like it is", if a women says the EXACT same thing they think "she's too aggressive". If she defends her team, she is argumentative, or ..."she's not ready" for a women, but for the guys it is "he has potential". The IT department has not hired or promoted a woman to Director level in over 5 years - in fact they lost the ones that were Directors (the last remaining woman Director in IT was hired over 8 years ago, hired under different management). The men who are chauvinists that no self respecting woman would work for (only contractors will) they recommend for leadership programs - but the woman who just got her MBA or the one that has been leading a team for years, gets shut out. The old southern white guy CEO is more impressed with birdbrained men who can schmooze and went to the "right" school, than finding and promoting any woman of substance. If you are a woman and want to move into senior management or a Director level job, you need to go elsewhere. I was enlisted in the Army for years, and I got more respect and had more opportunities for leadership roles and advancement than I do as a professional with a college degree currently at DISH.
