Vantaggi
Large company - provides many choices and career paths Many different projects to work on, many teams to collaborate with Ample leadership opportunities for those who are looking for it Good tuition reimbursement program Friendly atmosphere You are "potentially" doing something that will help the United States of America.
Svantaggi
Base salary is not competitive with market Engineers rarely receive bonuses (company recognizes managers, not engineers, and is "hush-hush" on what bonuses / incentives managers get) Does not spend money on engineers (for better tools, training conferences, etc.) - we are really treated just like engineers Many times knowledge gained is very domain specific and not transferable to other companies Many times projects get canceled (contracts are canceled or delayed) so you never see your software product out in the field (full lifecycle). Rarely do you interact with the customer (US Govt) or understand what they actually want Too much politics involved with contract negotiations, program management, project management, process - more time and money are spent in this area than actually completing a product that the customer can use.