The New York Times

Despite the newspaper industry's revenue downturn, the Times has solid management who are hard at work to ensure the company's future.

The Times has upgraded to modern OSS technology over the last three years—a big plus.

The Times froze salaries over the last couple of years. This makes moving to another company difficult if you're negotiating from a lower base pay than you ought to be getting if you were at another company.

Don't expect to advance beyond the job you are hired unto, not unless you're ready to be both a software developer and a project manager. Project management at The Times is nearly non-existent, and the few there have little technical knowledge. Those who can both develop and manage their projects may eventually be anointed into management (read: lots of overtime, and then you're no longer a developer).

Annual reviews are totally skewed. Employees are given an overall rating of 1-5, and 95% or more get a 3. A handful get a 4, and one or two get 5. People who get below a 3 are on their way out.

Provide advancement opportunities for developers in addition to the management path.

Provide a handful of developer roles that offer an upgrade path. There are basically two developer job titles: Software Engineer and Senior Software Engineer. Add to that a few others that reflect the type of work, i.e., specialization.

A developer who has shown proficiency in their area of work should be rewarded with a better title, e.g., Senior Platform Software Engineer II.