Avantages
I enjoy the work very much, am on a great team, leadership is supportive, computer tech-refresh & IT Help Desk support is good, and I feel appreciated. Realistic long-term job security and advancement for highly skilled, diplomatic, flexible people. For everyone else, the "do your best" approach keeps you gainfully employed, unless you really don’t know what you’re doing and blow work off. Wide range of thousands of Programs world-wide. A logical personal performance measurement, to allow "points accumulation". Many company technical symposiums year-round. Company stands it ground in Government negotiations, stays on budget and schedule, and invests in IRAD with discretion.
Inconvénients
Too many high-level engineers come unprepared to meetings, too many people in meetings, too many hijackers and distractors in meetings. Depressing to sometimes see high-level engineers content doing clerical and data-entry tasks. Advancement stops unless you help bring in new business (which is fair, I suppose). You start wishing some people would demonstrate more initiative, persistence, creativity. Silly process changes, as in, "remember that approach we used for capturing Goals and Objective for the last few years, now we think it was dumb, so we're improving it again". Occasional high stress level and personality conflicts. Struggle to find a balance between self-promotion and modesty. Tedious mandatory annual training (Ethics, IT Security). Inundated with every politically-correct corporate-backed special interest under the sun (Women / Blacks / Hispanic / Gay Societies), overbearing in my opinion. Company stock price on a very rocky road.