Pros
I get a paycheck. They offer some tuition assistance. The benefits aren't totally horrible. And they have "flex scheduling" which lets you come and go as you please basically as long as you get your work done. They match 401k contributions and charity donations. In terms of females: the only pro is that they offer Maternity leave, a nursing room, and uhhh special parking if you are expecting. But the buck stops there in accommodating women in a male dominated workforce (Engineering).
Cons
Salary is not competitive for this area -- and god forbid you ask for a raise. They'll either pretend you never asked and ignore you for months afterwards hoping you'll go away, or make up some convenient excuse for why you won't get a raise (even when they've acknowledged that you are underpaid). It's no small wonder we struggle to retain high-performers. They offer little to no technical training (internal, external and otherwise). All your training will be OJT and you can guarantee you'll see "technically weak" somewhere on your Performance review in your career -- and they will find a way to blame you for this despite the limited OJT. offering this incentive might make up for the poor salary, but in this case, compounds the effect as your resume and technical skillsets languish. If you were planning on making a career in Engineering and becoming a technically deep engineer (or have aspirations to become a principal or chief engineer one day) this is NOT the place for you to grow. This is where you come to get a paycheck. We have approximately 11% females in engineering (down from the 13%+ we had two years ago...RED FLAG), and only three of them are in leadership -- so we're obviously challenging the diversity quota when it comes to attracting and retaining women. (P.s. last year 23% of graduates in engineering in the US were women, so 11% is nothing to be proud of) And i'm of the impression we lost more women in the past 6 months than we've hired (RED FLAG if you're a woman). This is petty, but more important than you would think. These new cubicles are horrible. Efficiency has worsened since they went up. Privacy is non-existent, and I feel overwhelmed by the constant engagement with other people as an introvert. I felt like i was 200x more productive when I had walls higher than 4 feet and couldn't hear a cacophony of noise all day. I'm not sure why we even bother to put any walls up. Might as well be in a bull pen in the new york stock exchange for how busy it gets around here in my bldg. I seriously try to hide in empty offices or conference rooms just so I can hear myself think.