Pros
- Company will throw money at projects when they become critical security issues. Many of these issues could be avoided with proper planning. - If you have no previous software dev. skills or experience, this is a great place. On the job training will teach you to write VBA Access scripts and for-loops. - You can take years to develop a simple application that should take a week or two, and it's okay. - Company is large and will continue to exist years from now, this isn't a start-up. - Company culture insists that everyone is a "cheerleader." You soon find that when everyone isa cheerleader you don't get very many effective players or leaders. - If you hire on at the San Antonio, TX home office, they pride themselves on not laying-off professional employees. You can hire on with six (6) months of experience here and retain your job while the company is going through cutbacks and ROF'ing employees with 10 years of experience elsewhere in the company. The home office employees are considered untouchable compared to employees located elsewhere in the company.
Cons
This company doesn't develop software. They would like to hire you as a MVC, .NET, C#, DB developer so that you can improve the linked excel sheets or correct the Oracle 9.0 data API's that corrupt on export. You'll find that there's a lack of scope, specifications, understanding, source control, documentation, reading / understanding, standards, or ideas on how to progress projects. If you ask about implementing a system for source control, test and live development, distributed computing, you'll bo stonewalled by your fellow employees and eventually released. Typical software development that should normally take 3-6 months will take 5+ years due to a lack skill. The company in general doesn't replace hardware or software until well after critical security updates have been discontinued, and at that point they'll throw money at a project to mitigate risks rather than proactively tackle problems. The Software developers currently employed are typically mechanical engineers or structural engineers who read the sparks note to SQL Server 2000 development guide. Typically the managers for IT solutions come from similar backgrounds. They've never written a line of code, they can boot a computer by pressing the power button, and if they have trouble starting excel or logging in they'll come look for you. These are the people who are "cross-trained" from other fields and are now making critical software decisions on products. You'll find that buzzwords are big here, and if you can use "distributed computing" to deliver email, "run vectorized CAD programs on cellphones," or "harness the IoT SaaS model to develop better accounting ," you'll do well here. - The pay, benefits, and perks aren't comparable to the rest of the software industry (start-up or established companies). You'd be better off looking elsewhere. - You're co-workers will likely be in positions of power over you even though they're learning how to write an if-statement. If you speak up, they may consider your knowledge and experience a potential threat.