Not a Glamorous Life, but a Good Life
Pros
(I've been at the Anchorage office for 2 years) - Alaska. Need I say more? - Good work/life balance. People are expected to be productive (obviously), but it's not like so so crammed onto you on a daily basis like I've felt at other places in the past. - Generally local clients (remote working is encouraged, but client is ultimately an Alaskan organization usually) - Pleasant culture -- president of the company is often out fishing or skiing, people wear Carharts, lot of bike commuters, etc. Very generous when it comes to company-sponsored events (both in quantity and quality). - RDI has a positive outlook, contrary to the downward trend of the greater Alaskan economy
Cons
- I have mixed feelings about software consulting work in general. Some people love it, but my experience is that clients are one or more of the following: (1) in trouble, (2) have no idea what they're doing / have no idea how technology or technology development works, (3) their codebase is drowning in technical debt, partially because none of the dozens of consultants the client hired in the past addressed it, and partially because the client doesn't pay the consultant to do so. - Although there is a mix of types of projects (some are really cool, some are lame), there is an overall trend of Alaskan organizations being far behind technologically, and in a lot of technical debt. Like maybe 5-10 years behind industry standards; government organizations at least 10. - Because of the above points, I am not learning very much from a software development perspective. I'm learning a lot on how to kiss a client's butt and make them happy and deal with people-issues. But in terms of learning new software technologies, tools, best practice trends, etc. ... nada. But hey, I get to live in Alaska so whatever!
