Some world class projects but tough work life balance
Pros
- highly competent, intelligent, and diverse colleagues - some opportunities to work on truly world class engineering projects (e.g. engineering disasters that are making international news) - good pay depending on the city and industry you work in (pay is similar across all groups and cities, so if you live in the Bay Area it is low but good if you live in Phoenix) - relatively great freedom to pursue projects you want to work on
Cons
- Direct manager and specific group culture makes a huge difference. Not all groups have a warm and fuzzy culture to say the least - Some projects are quite boring and more importantly I found that a significant number of small projects had impossible budget and timeline constraints - Work life balance is not good. I found myself sometimes working on saturdays or late (past 7pm) on Friday nights. I once had a 2hr meeting at 10:30PM not because of time zones but because of a deadline.