Vantaggi
Hands down, best place to work when it comes to coworkers. Other members of my team were all about making the best product instead of being about who is going to one-up everyone else for the boss. Low level management (my supervisor in particular): best supervisor/boss I've had the pleasure to work for. He was a manager that came across as more of a peer in every good sense of the word. While you knew he was your boss, you also knew that technically, he was very sharp. He knew the design/engineering aspect very well and was just getting his feet wet with the management side. They allow for flex-time to some extent (not a set-in-stone time schedule). They also have a 9/80 summer schedule (80 hours over 9 days, every other Friday off). As of 2009, they still offered either a traditional pension or a lump sum pension as well as 401k matching. My premiums for medical/dental seemed low compared to other places I've worked, but I also paid a lot more out of pocket in coinsurance.
Svantaggi
Payscale is far lower than other companies in the same field. After 7 years with the company and an applicable Master's degree, I only saw a pay raise of $12000. A promotion was a raise of 4000 and most other years, raises were 3%. If you were not working overtime, you were not doing your job. Company policy was that you did not receive any overtime pay unless you worked 8+ hours of OT in a week and you could only record OT on your timesheet if you worked 2+ hours OT per day. This policy was strict. Most supervisors held their employees to this rule. There were many weeks in which I had to work OT (less than 8 hours) and saw no compensation, not even comp time. While the 9/80 work schedule was good, it used to be for 6 months out of the year. A few years back, it was cut back to only 4 months and there was never a long stretch where you would be on this schedule. It was suspended the weeks around Memorial, Independence and Labor Day. I never felt like I could get into the groove of the 9/80 schedule since every few weeks, it would revert back to the regular 5/40 schedule. Take note: this 9/80 schedule is merely a perk, it is not required of employees to follow it.