Pros
- Working with some of the brightest people in the field of FEM and computational mechanics; - Most people are highly educated (PhD, MS), friendly and easy to interact with; - Satisfaction of contributing to an iconic and well-respected product (Abaqus) used by many companies and engineers around the world; - Cultural diversity; - Some work schedule flexibility (but depends on the manager); - Most of the technical managers are understanding people; - (Still) a decent vacation (3 to 5 weeks depending on for how long you have worked here); - Current location (although not in a nice neighborhood) is relatively close to downtown Providence; - Some (limited) travel opportunities (depending on the group, manager etc.); - Stability and growth of the company;
Cons
- Average benefits: benefits have been reduced year by year for the last several years, from good to average: 401k contribution was reduced; employee’s contribution to health insurance was introduced and has been increased year by year while the quality of the health plans decreased and so forth… - Low salaries, insignificant salary raises and mediocre bonuses for the last several years despite good company growth. Almost none of the big profit cascades down to those creating the products generating the income. Also, the company takes back some of raise by increasing the employee health care contribution etc.; - Many good technical people (support and development) left during the last year; - Career growth can be very slow and without much professional satisfaction. Depending on the group, you might have to deal with a huge amount of old code which can take up to several years to learn. Because of the average benefits newer developers do not stay that long anymore and talented people are hard to find. Work can be very dull at times: unless you joined the company 10-20 years ago, don’t expect you’re going to get the most interesting work, no matter your background, skills or interests. No opportunities to learn new programming skills (unless you do it on your own time). No opportunity to publish or do academic level research (except for a few people); - Recognition goes mainly to people who contribute to products with high visual impact. If your work cannot be visualized do not expect much recognition; - Uncertainty of HQ location in the near future;
