Pros
Benefits are good, although, with healthcare reform, my health insurance went up 50% from last year. Good 401K match. Lots of corporate perks. Good work/life balance - although this tends to depend on what department you work in, who your manager is (some are ruthless & scary), etc etc. Have a nice manager makes a world of difference in your experience. A good manager will help you grow.
Cons
The more I see, the more I understand about what's really going on behind the scenes. Where to begin..... - Tons of politics in HR. A ridiculous amount. They push "deliverables" and deadlines for projects and don't really care about the quality of the systems or data coming out. But be careful not to point this out, unless you want to lose your job. - Politics rules everything. Everything in this company, or at least at HQ is about WHO you know. You will never move up without being in the favor of the right person. - It is insanely hard to move within the company. I don't understand why. - Recruiting processes take forever. This is a highly developed organization that is still so tied up in processes & semantics. - Your manager really shapes your experience. That being said, I am lucky to have a very nice manager, but I have learned what managers you need to play nice with and tip-toe around. Other managers I know are ruthless & not great with work/life balance. - Some departments are experiencing really insane changes. This creates high stress & chaos. - Layoffs have definitely been more frequent lately. - Salaries seem scattered. People that are more well liked definitely get higher pay & more recognition awards. - Salaries not always reflective of your actual work experience & educational experience. Again, if you are well liked and highly sought out by a manger though, they will give you a great compensation package. - Contractors are commonly treated like second class citizens. It's truly sad. A lot of J&Js workforce is comprised of contractors & they do a LOT of work. It is very hard for them to get hired on as full time employees & this seems really unethical to me. - If you are well liked and play your cards right, you can get promotions. Meanwhile, other people that actually have the work experience & background don't get the promotions. - This org is caught up in unnecessary processes. They lack a bigger picture focus and many managers are reluctant to think outside the box, simply because managers and directors have been there for 20+ years, have no innovative or outside perspective and only think what they think is the right way to do things. - Higher management in HR is completely ignoring that a lot of employees are terrified of certain directors - this causes distrust in the organization. I can't get too much into this here.... but beware of the wolf in sheeps clothing.