Pros
Company is growing rapidly meaning there are lots of projects, but not necessarily lot's of job promotion at middle manager levels...for junior staff (less than 5 yrs of engineering experience), it can be good growth opportunity.
Cons
More experienced new hires have no growth paths leading to higher compensation. In fact, experienced staff will be under utilized, expected to train junior folks and paid only for the job they do (the under utilized job). Also, during hiring middle managers, beware that 20% to 30% bonus talk needs to be discounted to 10% to 15% - there are too many people in the bonus pool which is only sized for 85% participation of managers and there are actually more than 100% of the staff participating in the bonus pool (ie some that aren't eligible are tossed in too). It's a not a pay for performance environment, but rather a "every one shares in the pie". This has lead to many old timers working the system - not willing to travel, do the9 to 5 and they know their bonuses will be the same regardless. New go getters beware - travel constantly, work uncompensated extended work weeks, but don't expect more than a percentage point more than the guy who has a life outside of work and refuses to inconvenience himself with more than minor travel of his own choosing. Also, don't listen to talk about participating in the "highly selective" long term incentive plan - only SVP's participate and then only less than 1% of all staff. They'll say you are eligible for consideration, but you won' t get near those dollars. Also, company has grown a lot, but mostly just project work, not in terms of senior management postions or ability to do more than just remain on projects and go from project to project. Management role pursuits are discouraged during career planning - they need people working at cheap rates for commodity engineering work for clients with cost constraints. All overhead executive management travel in business class or first class, but project staff are told to take economy on flight overseas (25 hr flights) so that we can be more competitive for the client's cost constraints. Also, "cool projects" are in the mind of the beholder - it's mostly routine stuff or the "cool projects" are "resume builders" so you'll be expected to go for the "experience" not the pay. Training is messaged, but reality is you have to put in your request for budget a year in advance and then you'll be told to use your vacation time to attend and your frequent flyer miles to cover the airplane and maybe they'll pay for a hotel and meals, but they'll pay the registration for 2 or 3 days or split it with you...it's not all its cracked up to be and funding and availability of trainning varies very widely throughout the company - can be good, but mostly a disappointment.
