Pros
The people at the Lebanon, VA office are really great. It's a mostly casual working environment, with very little micro-managing at the lower levels. Your first-level managers are amazing and genuinely care about your concerns. In fact, most of the people you'll work with are exceptionally nice and pleasant to work with regardless of location. If you do accept a job here, your first, second and potentially even third level managers genuinely care about your concerns (just don't confuse `care` with actually having the power to do anything about them).
Cons
If you're a recent graduate, contemplating whether or not this place is something worth looking into, please read this section in it's entirety. --- Me --- Worked for CGI Federal in Lebanon, VA as a software developer. After about 3 years, I was transitioned into a development lead role. I worked on the Momentum product from 2010 to 2014. --- Your Job Title --- I worked for CGI Federal in the Lebanon, VA location for roughly 4 years as a Consultant. Make no mistake, my job was nearly 100% development; C++, Java, SQL cleanup, a little perl here and there. Even so, my title was never referred to anything other than "Consultant", with management staying very noticeably away from any title associated with Software Developer, Software Engineer, etc. This title is specifically how upper management explained to me my low salary; you will be a Consultant. You will not be a Software Developer to them. --- Your Work --- The product I worked on was massive - at the time of writing this, roughly 3 million lines of C++ (not counting comments, etc.). That's not a con at all, but is a necessary detail for this section. The very vast majority of your work, as a developer, will be closer to Applications Development than anything. There are rare occasions when you need to conceptualize anything sophisticated prior to beginning your development. By sophisticated I mean algorithmic - by and large, your work will likely consist of determining which 1 to 5 methods were left out of the original design, and then finding where to update/add those methods to the system; 90% of the time, these methods have already been written and you're literally copy/pasting function calls. After about a year, you may get the opportunity to implement new functionality into the system, but more times than not, this has already been designed for you by an architect, and it's simply up to you to write the code how they've already designed it. --- Your Personal Growth --- The project doesn't lend itself well to innovation for two primary reasons: (1) It's a pretty big software, so innovative changes take time and (2) management. (1) Let me be very clear on this part, because it is crucial for you to understand if you do take this position. Unless you go out of your way to contribute in new ways above and beyond your day-to-day expectations OR you are an avid hobby developer, continuing to do development outside of work, your development skills will not improve much at all past the first 1 or 2 years with this product. You will be doing a mixture of the same C++ and Java/J2EE development and debugging, every day. There likely won't be any *new* technology that you get to dabble with. There will be no new languages implemented that you get to gain experience in. The overarching theme of your resume will read: Development Experience: C++, Java/J2EE, SQL -- this is hard to accept, considering the demand for industry experience in more modern languages. (2) After reading the above, you need to know this: Management doesn't care. You're a consultant. You're not a developer. And no, this is not me being vain; this is directly from 1-on-1 meetings I've had with management. Several developers (myself included) have been directly told that "CGI is not a software company.. we're a consulting company." We have recommended "innovation days" (think, hackathon); management thought the idea was ok, as long as the idea you work on was *profitable* in some way, and you can prove that upfront. You will be told by upper management that they value your growth as a developer. They don't. Your first few managers may tell you they care, and I believe that they genuinely do. The problem, and they will admit this to you if you ask, is that they have *very* limited authority to do anything about them. --- Your Financial Growth --- Do your research. Don't trust what they tell you during your interview or recruiting session. Do. Your. Own. Research. They will tell you "$47,000 for a development position in this area is actually really good considering the cost of living." This is a lie. The cost of living for Lebanon, VA is rated at 93, roughly 7 points below the national average (100 being the average). Heck, the Fairfax rating is 143, and the starting salary for developers is less than $60,000! The average national salary for a software developer, straight out of college, is in the mid $70,000s. Remember: You are not a developer to them. You are a Consultant. Upper management told us directly that `we can not treat you like [developers from other companies] because we are a consulting company; not a software company`. Raises are, frankly, pathetic. I started in 2010 at $41,000 -- after 4 solid years of work for the product, my base salary when I left was just over $46,500 (keep in mind here that I was "promoted" to a development lead in 2013, and was given no pay adjustment for it). When I left the company, NEW developers straight out of school were being brought in at $47,000 - $49,000. In other words, CGI started hiring college graduates at higher rates than myself and even developer who'd been with the company for 5+ years; what you start at, you need to be happy with that number +1-3%~ in yearly raises. --- Your Benefits --- This section was only included for those of you who may be considering applying here, and haven't yet received a benefits brochure. The only important thing worth mentioning is healthcare; everything else is decent. If you have a family PLEASE read your healthcare package closely. As of writing this review, the annual deductible for family coverage was $7,000 -- and it's a high-deductible type plan; essentially you have ZERO COVERAGE until you pay $7,000 out of pocket. --- Your Value --- I worked with a guy who was an exceptional developer, a technical lead, and the direct technical contact for one of our clients; he had been with CGI Federal for roughly 4.5 years when he told management he'd received another offer, but would be willing to stay if the counter offer was acceptable. Management DID NOT COUNTER. Management was vocal about the fact that this guy was an exceptional talent but they were unwilling to offer him ANY pay adjustment in order to keep him. --- The Atmosphere --- When I left, it was a very poor morale overall. They will tell you "Our retention is high!" and "Our revolving-door is great!" This may well be true for the company as a whole. It is most certainly not true for the Momentum product. The retention percentage might be high, but it's a lousy method of tracking. I can count at least 7 people who've left in the past 2 years that easily account for over 60 years of combined experience. These are just the ones I know about.