Avantages
Relatively stable employment in this bad economy. Decent pay and benefits, though not the best I've had. Long timers get some grandfathered pension plan that can be very lucrative, motivating older employees to stay until retirement. You are allowed one week of training per year, if you can find the time to do it. Most people I work with are professional and respectful of others. There is some very bright technical talent, young or old, but the company seems to have trouble retaining the younger ones. Company respects and promotes diversity, presumbly to stay on the good side of the government when bidding on contracts.
Inconvénients
Extremely heavy buearucracy. Way too many layers of checks and balances with overlapping authority and responsibility. Hundreds of policies and processes along with tons of "process police" type of people who slow down projects and add no real value. Technologically, the company is far from cutting edge. The old school culture encourages people to hide behind "processes" and resist change. Seniority and length of service weighes heavily on advancement. Being in this industry, the company promotes a self protective and risk adverse culture, leading to CYA type of behavior and offering little incentive for innovation. Work environment is very, very dull, with little to no social interaction between coworkers. Hard to build a network and long lasting working relationships when there're no organized team building activities or other opportunities to bond outside of work. Depending on location, work facilities are often old, run down and poorly managed. Depending on the group you are in, you could be pressured into working nights and weekends, week after week, with no financial or time compensation. The tone is that you should be grateful to have this job. Communication and decision making is definitively top-down at all levels of management, with no attempt to solicit input from the rank and file. Every new process or slogan is pushed down your throat with little forewarning and no attempt to get feedback. This type of environment easily makes employees feel unvalued, whether or not it's management's intention.