Ventajas
* Small and Diverse Workplace. About 100 people work at this company and they are roughly evenly divided between the two main programs. Given this, there is always someone doing some sort of activity outside of work. * Roughly average compensation. Benefits are OK. * Unique opportunities. Engineers get to work on exciting and useful projects to protect our GIs. Lots of neat toys and travel opportunities for strong performers and there is a prospect for international travel for senior employees. * You have to be paid for all the time you work. If the program can't afford to pay you extra, you have to go home for the remainder of pay period. Makes for great work-life balance.
Desventajas
* Small company, so naturally there won't be any special benefits that you would expect at bigger companies. Any natural disaster time has to be made up instead of being excused and you are only given a short amount of time to make it up. You start work with no PTO. The pay could be better, but the market in the area is relatively deflationary. So base pay really isn't a "con". I was just hoping for 200 a paycheck more in the final offer. * The culture can be so casual that a lot of NSFW out loud discussions come up from time to time. Its a morale issue. Work isn't a safe space, but morale and professionalism is important. * Because of the dynamic nature of the program and the size of the company, training is hit or miss. The first couple of months working as a new engineer are critical. If you are managed in a way that provides ample training opportunities, you will be given the ability to "learn the ropes". If you are not engaged in that way, it will be very difficult to get up to speed. Generally, you have to produce something in 4 or 5 months or you will be subject to discipline and eventually shown the door. * Some of the things you will learn in this program are transferable skills. Most of them are not. If you have long-term intentions here, you really must be committed to either working for AVT or their competimates here at the UCF technology campus. * There appears to be a good amount of "churn" at this time. Out of 40 some odd people on the project, I have seen about 8 people leave while I have been working here over the last 6 months, including 2 that left as I was joining. It appears that people are either here for a few months or have "always been here".