Pros
The pay is good, though in the Bay Area it never seems to be enough. The benefits package, however, is great, especially if you have a family, and the new central gym/clinic/juice bar/pharmacy facility is amazing. A dominant company with plenty of cash in the bank, it's definitely a good place to be in this economy. Training is encouraged and widely available and people seem to be encouraged to change roles every couple of years. If you want to get a flavor for a lot of different aspects of the business, its possible to do. At least in my org, there's some flexibility on hours and work location - working from home on Fridays has never been an issue. Its also great to work with people who have interests and concerns aside from just making money, and impressed with the amount of philanthropy and volunteerism. Most of the people here seem genuinely smart.
Cons
The politics. It seems the only way that people move up is to make their sphere of influence greater, not do a good job with what they are already have. So forget trying to get into a job and start kicking ass - its all about managing expectations and having a few wins, and then spinning the results. Everyone takes pride in the company's innovation, but I think we're mostly riding on past reputation, and improving products we already have. While we've done a great job promoting TelePresence, its not exactly a new idea - we just improved on it. Part of the problem with the politics is that its difficult to move up once you get to say Sr. Manager/Manager level. It isn't clear what the requirements are to develop your career, and people aren't always willing to develop their direct reports for fear that then they'll take over their job. The boards and councils that drive many of the initiatives are all executive driven, and its isn't clear at all that they are productive. Its tough to get everyone on the calendar at the same time, and it doesn't seem that they want to do any delegating to those of us further down the chain.
