Pros
Reading through some pros, definitely agree with a lot of pros. I have been lucky enough to have great leaders and co-worked who have become life-long friends and I wouldn’t be who I am without them. I learned so much about corporate life, customer service, and general professionalism. There is so much flexibility once you move on from the entry level positions.
Cons
Unfortunately, reading through all the cons, I agree with so many of the cons already listed as well. There is a narrative that it is easy to move up, and for a select few that it is true. But for a vast majority, it’s completely false. I have also been unlucky enough to have some terrible leaders. I learned first-hand, people don’t leave companies, they leave poor management. There is a lot of pressure to be 5-star engaged. Engagement is your own responsibility. If you don’t play your leaders forced engagement games, you aren’t engaged. (I absolutely value engagement, but there are natural ways to engage your teams). We spent more time tracking our work as we did actually working. My mid/senior level role began to feel like an entry level role, and therefore a huge step backward in development. If something can be tracked, it will be tracked. If you think something can’t be tracked, someone will find a way to track it, and report out on it daily. (Literally we had sticker charts like an elementary student) Even though our teams were permanent work from home, there was a lot of pressure to come back to the office. (Which seems odd considering so many teammates don’t even work in the state anymore).