Vantaggi
It has great benefits for those who choose to "work through the pain". There is a high turnover rate so your chances of moving laterally are very high.
Svantaggi
-Management can only think about 10 minutes into the future and very rarely take the 15 minutes they require to process what you are saying to make an intelligent decision. -The "process" that has kept this manufacturing company in business is seen as the "proper" way to run the IT department. You just put cog A into slot B. How hard can that be? -All hiring into the department is done from an outside source. There is NO possibility of internal development or growth. If you want to get ahead, you have a better chance of quitting your current position and immediately applying for that same position with a 10% salary increase. -Every other job is a dead end and you "will be much more satisfied if you wait 5 years and see where this job takes you". -People are interchangeable parts. There is no sense of skill level or competence, you just pick a person out of the hat and they are the best person for the job. -Career development is seen as the number of years you sit in your chair twiddling your thumbs, not what you actually are able to accomplish. -10 years of making bad decisions is better than 9 years of consistent excellence.