Pros
Coming to APL right out of college, the pay is decent and there are many opportunities to gain experience across a wide variety of technologies, which can help narrow down interests within the field. For the most part, coworkers are very friendly and easy to get along with, although this may vary depending on the group. Also, employees can get a free Master's degree with no strings attached.
Cons
After working for some years at APL, your salary will no longer be competitive with other organizations (can easily get a 40-50% pay increase by switching jobs). Also, many projects feel pointless and lack any impact, especially IRADs. Lastly and most importantly, upper management is absolutely clueless when it comes to remote work. Many groups are being forced to show up 3+ days a week to the Lab, and any feedback that was gathered during the pandemic about preference to work remotely seems to be completely disregarded. Remote work was going great during the peak of the pandemic, and employees were incredibly productive. Now employees have to be in the office just to have Zoom meetings while trying not to be interrupted by other employees having Zoom meetings... The most infuriating part is that on-site presence is being tracked via badge swipes. Are we not professional adults that can be trusted? It's frankly insulting and immediately triggered my job search.