Pros: You work on some cool technology.

Cons: They talk a lot about supporting employees and work-life balance, but the expectations make that impossible. Working here has been a constant cycle of burnout.

Pros: The team environment was very strong. You need to make sure that your optical background and knowledge is sufficient. All their work is cutting-edge, and you get to work with amazing people.

Cons: Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost in your own project. Make sure to always allow time to go find other groups to keep engaged with what’s happening.

Pros: Decent pay, smart people, and extra-curricular activities.

Cons: Work/life balance, more work than you can handle, a demanding schedule, a heavy emphasis on meetings, and pretentious management. Management loves to judge your performance by metrics, which encourages gaming the system. However, these metrics are not a fair assessment of an employee's value. Every employee in my department can hit the metrics they establish, but unless you establish a good relationship with your manager—which is almost impossible given how poorly the company distributes people and by how many meetings you and your manager are in—it's really hard to show your value outside these metrics. The work eventually becomes exhausting, repetitive, and soul-sucking.