Pros
There are opportunities to work on interesting projects depending which area you support and make a real impact, especially if you're self-motivated and proactive. Some teams are filled with smart, driven individuals who genuinely want to do good work and support one another.
Cons
The most significant challenge is the lack of effective leadership. In my experience, many in leadership had been at the company so long that they struggled to see beyond their own perspective, rarely communicating a cohesive strategy or how individual teams connected to broader company goals — which often led to repetitive work focused more on pleasing senior voices than driving real impact.
Adding to the last point, decision-making is heavily centralized, with a small number of individuals driving performance perceptions. In practice, this creates a culture where success is more about managing optics and aligning with the right people, rather than delivering lasting impact. Work can become repetitive, often focused on appeasing senior stakeholders rather than solving real business problems.
While I focused on supporting stakeholders and helping my direct reports grow, it became clear that consistent delivery and team satisfaction weren’t enough — performance was ultimately shaped by subjective impressions at the top.
