Pros: You get to take things at your pace. You want to move fast and take up complex tasks? You can. Want to lay low for a few months while working on a part-time degree? Of course you can.

Cons: No pressure. Pretty old technology. Some of the skills are not portable at all.

Pros: 1. Good holiday and paid day off. 2. Benefits (salary, insurance, 401k) and work hours are generally good. 3. Nice office with free drinks and snacks.

Cons: 1. Most of the time, I'm doing maintenance work rather than working on something new and exciting. 2. High taxes and living expenses in New York City. 3. Nonsensical recruiting. 4. Good training for non-programmers, but it's too long and useless if you already have a lot of programming experience.

Pros: The best learning experiences were in core C++, server-side coding, templates, and JavaScript asynchronous frameworks, etc. Then, out of nowhere, a reorg happens, and you are left with nothing that you built with so much hard work. Good pay, amazing benefits (best in NYC), a pretty building, rarely fires (always puts people on performance plans), very fast learning. The CEO discussed voluntary work that I did with them. They have amazing matches for community involvement (they matched $5,000 to my charity for my voluntary hours).

Cons: Too many reorgs (not just my team but others too). Very competitive; hard to get an "exceeds expectations." Proprietary tech, at times too fast-paced, with a steeper learning curve.