Pros
* Full autonomy and no management in sight; they only show up when there is something to celebrate or take credit for * Product management is incapacitated by so-called scaled agile frameworks, so you decide what to build, and managers will make sure to justify the success * Senior leadership seems to be very disconnected and wooed by their middle management reports, so they think you do a good job regardless * You can ask anonymous questions to get ambiguous answers * Suggestions are tolerated, responsibilities are compartmented * Great place to be if you are from big consulting companies
Cons
* No growth opportunities * Heavy office politics, all blame is put on high performers after they leave * Technical staff are treated as a commodity, they are consumed, spent and traded * Almost all people managers act like covert marketing agents * A lot of fake success stories; digital transformation and major platform technology initiatives are set up to impress investors as if any innovation is happening * Large scope technical decisions are made by the business to be praised by people managers * SDLC cycle is about getting contractors to build a proof of concept, replace them with full-time, fail at productization, get more contractors, rinse and repeat