Pros
Comfy place for average developers
Kontras
If you are good they will still offer you an SDE2 position, and it will be impossible to step up in less then 3 years. Be prepared for this, because internal promotions has a headcount, and no matter how good you are you wont be able to contribute as much as the ones that are there for years. (because you have to learn a lot of legacy code and systems first) Just imagine in a 300 dev org, only 3 people can be promoted per quarter, so even if you are in the top 10% right in your first day, you have to wait years till it will be your turn. Also nothing matters that happened before the hire date you have to prove yourself there (just to slow down any promotion). Because of this as well there are a lot of politics for SDMs. Frugality is insane, you have to fight for even a $20/month ec2 instance, and waste so many time on creating docs for it. Forget effectiveness, you have to at least 3 times review your CR as people taste are different. You have to argue for every permissions etc. In a startup i can get a monthly work done in 3 days and not for continuously ping people to review my cr or give me permission for something. (Again this environment ideal for average people who wouldn't be effective anyway) I can only hope i can stand it until i get my Permanent Residency.