Pros
1) In between project cycles, there is nothing to work on (but this isn't really a pro for me, as I felt incredible bored, disengaged and unvalued). I have so many skills but none of them were utilized.... this company has way too many engineers and not enough work to go around (if you've been here less than 5y, you will only get assigned the garbage work that no-one else wants to do, all the good stuff goes to folks who have been there 5 - 20y). They rarely hire new folks (almost never). Great place for lazy people (long-timers) to rest and vest.
Cons
One of the worst companies I've ever worked for (people, culture and frugality are among the worst attributes of this company): 1) Ultra frugal company: a) Pays much less than other companies (RSUs smallest I've seen) b) Refresh RSUs are practically zero (not even worth mentioning) c) ESPP is useless (I was actually losing money on it while I was there) d) Incredibly difficult to get equipment purchases approved 2) Dishonest/unscrupulous recruiters/managers a) Recruiter actually negotiated lower level for me with HM than was discussed with me and didn't tell me about it! Unreal... same title had 3 levels so I had no idea until a few months after joining. So the RSU refreshers were much lower than discussed with recruiter. b) Waited several years for my manager to let me do the work we agreed to upon joining before moving on. 3) Only long term employees get promoted (or those with same race/ethnicity as VP). a) I experienced complete reverse discrimination while there (VP only promoted those of same race/ethnicity). Those of this race/ethnicity treated me like garbage and the VP (and other similar race/ethnicity managers under him) protected them and retaliated and beat-up on me for complaining. 4) From what I saw, all new employees get treated like garbage by the long-timers at this company. Ironic since they have been there a long time and are making significantly more than you due to stock run-up. a) A big part of the problem is that this company has no peer review system in place for annual or real-time feedback, so when folks behave in an outrageous manner, there is nothing you can do but try to ignore it. Totally broken review system. 5) People only respect you if you've been with the company a minimum of 5y.... time spent with the company is like a badge of honor. Ideas and industry experience gained outside Nvidia are disregarded/ignored (Nvidia is *not* interested in how things are done elsewhere in industry.... it's their way or the highway type of mentality). In my case, I had ~20y industry experience (specialization) in a particular area, and they wouldn't even invite me to meetings (I practically had to beg to contribute). No one at Nvidia had anywhere near the level of experience or knowledge I had in this area.... folks that were hacks were listened to like they were experts. It was amazing. I was used to being the subject matter expert for a company with 200,000 employees, but at Nvidia...with <10000 employees, they refused to allow me to be a subject matter expert (my director actually rejected my request to contribute). 6) People working here displayed a complete lack of integrity/honesty (although this happens at some other companies too). 7) The labs at NVIDIA are a disaster. Most look like a bomb went off, and you have to fight to get even a tiny amount of lab space. Definitely the most disorganized, underfunded and poorly run labs I've seen in industry.