Pros
I am so glad I did not let the negative reviews on this website stop me from taking this job. There *is* a huge difference between roles in the Systems department and roles in General Management. I worked in Systems. I worked as a software developer for more than two years and went from knowing nothing about applied software development to knowing enough to get a great next job in software. - Huge culture of learning and teaching in the department - Opportunity to learn about different domains (front-end, back-end, infrastructure, data science, security) while learning about how an industrial supply business functions. - Had two spectacular managers who took effort to spend time to help me grow - Had the opportunity to grow as a coder and as a communicator - Learned a lot about visual design - Surprisingly forward-thinking initiatives present around diversity and inclusion considering how old the company is. It's no Etsy / Stitch-Fix, but better than most companies from what I can tell. - The department uses some new technologies (languages, platforms, services), like a hot start-up, but has 0% of going bankrupt in 2 years, unlike a hot start-up. - The company prioritizes doing it right the first time instead of hacking things together perpetually forever. I learned a lot about technical debt here, and how to write sustainable code. If you love learning, teaching, sharing, and want to learn about software development in a medium-pressure environment, work here.
Cons
- Don't work in here if you're interested in user experience design / user psychology / customer interviews / marketing. They don't really do that like you think they do. - There are a few managers who are arrogant and act in sexist ways / don't make efforts to improve themselves with regard to inclusion / don't listen to their female employees equally, but they are in the minority. It's mostly dudes who don't see how their actions sustain a culture where it's harder for women to succeed. There's still a strong community of stellar women kicking a** at software development, though. They're just not currently represented in upper management.