Pros
I started two years ago after graduating with a BS in IT. I had previously interned the summer prior and was offered a competitive starting salary as a contractor with the idea of transitioning to an employee. Within 6 months they made me an offer as an employee and it was for a Senior level position, with a pay bump. This has been great for my career and I've taken on a lot of responsibility very quickly as I am the only employee on the system I work on. I've also been approached to work on a pioneering pilot project, and had the opportunity to present the project to several VPs and the CEO of one of the utilities. I've been awarded prizes for innovative ideas as well.
Cons
- Work life balance is off. For the past 2 years I have been the only employee on a system that processes a rather significant sum of money daily, I am responsible for 24/7 application support. I've gotten calls at 2 AM, had to stay up from 11 pm to 7 AM unexpectedly, etc. I finally have another employee joining my system who should be able to provide some relief. - Leadership is very apprehensive regarding new ideas and new technologies, even for low risk projects. They often opt for far more expensive solutions with the expectation that it will be easier to maintain or find contractors to work on the system, but that's not always the case. I presented an innovative solution that would have saved a considerable sum over the proposed solution, yet it was shot down. My solution was later brought back up by senior management several months later as potential solution to some other issues though. It was frustrating to see my idea shot down and recycled as someone else's later on. - Leadership tends to rely too much on (new) contractors and don't always listen to employee concerns. A major project was delayed due to contractors having the final decision in a system design, getting it wrong, and having to redesign a significant portion. A lot of that work fell back to me. I made my concerns with the original design known, yet they continued work anyway. That project was officially "finished" nearly two months ago, yet there are still glaring issues in user experience that no one is terribly concerned about fixing.
