Pros
In a down economy with few job prospects for recent college graduates, this is a place for the desperate to get their feet wet and put something on a resume. The environment is similar to most businesses with interdepartmental drama and length of time to a promotion. In this regard, computer science graduates will gain experience that cannot be achieved in school. This makes for a better businessman, but not a better developer. Developers are given adequate equipment: computers, monitors, up to date software, source control. Developers also gain exposure to a wide range of concepts related to production software: release cycles, source control, database scripting, bug tracking. Developers are given adequate time to complete training and production projects. Very little time is required outside of work hours.
Cons
Senior management does not seem to understand that they are running a software company. The developers are always the smartest people in the room, yet treated like peons. Developers opinions are not valued in meetings. Just nod your head, code whatever terrible feature Design wants, and take a mental note of everything you would do differently in your next job. Developers are also expected to have too much business intelligence and are constantly bombarded with BI questions from different departments. Software developers are not insurance experts. A great deal of time is wasted learning about insurance instead of increasing technical skills. A lot of time is also spent on procedural drivel like time reporting and TPS reports. *** Biggest Con *** and most obvious is sub-standard pay. Starting salaries are a joke, annual raises are meager, promotional raises are still low. Expect 20% below average. Benefits are average.