Pros
Mostly smart, friendly colleagues. Interesting work topics with lots of problems to solve. Big chance for success if the problems are fixed.
Cons
A few people need to approve every small decision, so everything gets delayed. There is no delegation of decision-making. Too much documentation. We need a 50+ page requirements document for a new product before starting anything else. There are many politics between teams, caused by politics among upper management. There is competing for resources, looking for compromising information on rivals, and poor cooperation. The "Senior Leadership Team" is disconnected from the product they are building and selling. They focus on personal projects and repeat the same failed roadmap plan. Some people have special privileges. Even if they fail, they get promoted. Management lacks the experience to recognize these failures. Many smart people have spoken up about technical issues, unrealistic timelines, and company structure problems. These people are moved to less important roles or fired. Overly optimistic communication is encouraged, making it hard to know when something isn't working, except through rumors. Most managers never worked for more senior people and have no outside experience. They don't know how to invest in their team, build good working relationships with the employees, or learn from other companies' mistakes. Instead, they keep spending investor money to cover the issues and fire unhappy people saying that they don't fit in to the company culture.
