Pros
-Decent work life balance, encouraged to use vacation -Making food
Cons
-All the downsides of large corporations apply here. Sometimes asked to do elaborate things because some leader is coming to visit, or because some leader bought a bag of product that looked broken (even if all other product data indicates no issue). Most middle management is driven by what will look good on their end of year review, not by what actually makes sense for the business or people. -As engineers and scientist we are asked to do ALL kinds of things outside of our job title. I spend maybe 15% of my time on engineering and process/product development; the rest is spent on project planning, arranging shipping of product and ingredients, purchase orders, booking travel, and filling in for technicians who either don't exist or are too busy. Managers don't realize that they had dedicated people to do these tasks when they were in our shoes and still expect all of it to get done. -Pay and raises are abysmal compared to other players in the industry. People are dropping like flies for this reason. -Leaving R&D is viewed as a huge stigma. Don't expect cross-functional opportunities.
