Avantages
Pays well for the position and there is plenty of room to grow (within the parameters of this industry). The work at client sites is usually great, you are given a lot of freedom to manage yourself. Engineers are expected to perform, great benefits, get to be out of the office a lot. There are a few really sharp engineers, and a few who really shouldn't be working there, but most of the time there is a good chain to provide answers when they're not obvious. Work in the SF office if you want company culture, and a more fair and rewarding environment. LA is more challenging, but significantly less fun professionally and extremely bland. We have a help-desk in Austin too. Law firm consulting if that's what you enjoy.
Inconvénients
Increasingly political work environment. Upper management is totally out of touch with engineers. The bureaucracy and power/complexity of mgmt has roughly doubled in size in the last year making growing pains and a sense of anxiety prevalent. Extremely black and white, bland work environment at the office or with clients. Engineers all have terrible notion of job security bec. of mgmt's closed door policy of reviewing employees regularly without telling them and then firing them with little to no warning. Nobody trusts anyone anymore, people rat on each other often and "lead engineers" report everything no matter how inconsequential before mentoring or providing guidance (whether you know it or not). This goes tenfold for the client support call manager who throws people under the bus on a regular basis, is extremely condescending and doesn't care to hear anyone's side of things but has to deal with dispatching engineers all day.
