Vantaggi
Getting the experience to learn from "seasoned" engineers was a pro I think that helped me in the long run and after I left the company.
Svantaggi
Cons however, are different story(disclaimer I do understand that this position or engineering is not hand holding) , the vision I had entering the company was not the vision I left with. As a former associate engineer on the engineering team, my development skills were minimal at best and no one took me under their wing of sorts to emphasize what I would be working with as far as the codebase went. I only learned one thing in depth and the rest I had to found out on my own, which in my honest opinion I don't think that sets up your associate engineer who you know is less experienced for success. Things didn't start to click for me in the role until it was too late and I was let go. More so, while I was a POC on the team I felt like I got looked over in terms of asking for help from other engineers although it seemed like it was a crime to do so according to my "competent" people leader when someone else on the team who was more seasoned than me did it often. Biased much? I don't know but that is my viewpoint of it.