Corporate IT Dept - Great benefits, good culture (mostly)
Pros
-Great benefits including "extras" outside of the typical insurance/401k structure -Most senior management in IT are great leaders, empowering and motivational -A culture of pitching in together and doing it right, big emphasis on ethics and code of conduct -Dynamic environment (if you enjoy a challenge and shifting gears) -Values diversity, longevity, and employee growth - lots of opportunities to grow your skills in leadership, job-related areas, and elsewhere -Some positions compensation is above market Overall, I think the pros outweigh the cons for my personal taste. I work well in an environment that changes - over the 3 years that I've worked in IT at Sysco, we've changed our management structure 3 times, changed IT strategy at least twice, and adopted new methodologies twice. Communication can be a challenge, but the change is generally well done so as along as you are comfortable switching gears, you'll be fine. Sysco offers a great benefits package including decent vacation/time-off and good "perks" like holiday hams and employee purchasing. The company also values employee learning and growth, and puts major effort into offering coaching/learning opportunities, especially if you are interested in management roles or learning better leadership. Compensation seems to be above market in some positions while under market in others, so it's hit or miss.
Cons
-Dynamic environment (if you don't adapt well to change) -IT specific: Very siloed, other departments will do their own thing, not much knowledge transfer between departments so you often compete with each other for resources unknowingly -IT specific: support is mostly managed services, and the companies providing those services are not very focused on "the customer experience", so you often have to clean up their work -Technology is ancient -Some mid-level managers are inflexible and demotivating, leading with more of a carrot/stick mentality. -IT specific: There's still a big grudge when Sysco unilaterally laid off most of the IT department (and brought in managed services) about 5 years ago or so, so those who have been around since before then often have a bone to pick and get very disgruntled quickly. It can be hard to work with those managers at times because they're too busy being upset about the decision made, and not interested in collaboration/furthering the business -IT specific: Because most roles are filled by managed services companies, career growth within IT is very limited unless you go into management -(might be a con to you) Often expected to go the extra mile, work outside of the typical 9-5 The cons are generally limited to roles that require collaboration and communication cross-functionally within the IT department. If your role will not require working with other groups often, then they may not apply much to you. Also, if you are looking for more technical roles, and are not interested in moving in management, the career opportunities are severely limited, though I see some of that changing in emerging technologies like cyber security and cloud architecture. In IT especially, you're often expected to put in extra work to meet deadlines or support major releases in off-hours. You also tend to get too many assignments, so your work/life balance may suffer a bit. I've noticed this in other departments, too, that the expectation is to do what needs to be done - if you're a "roll your sleeves up, get to work" kind of person, this shouldn't be a problem. However, if you're motivated by a more structured environment with clear roles/responsibilities and boundaries, then this may not be the right culture for you. Unrelated to IT specifically, the environment is extremely dynamic which can be a con if you are not flexible/adaptable. The company also uses very old technology as a backbone for its core systems, which can fail unexpectedly during business hours. Depending on your role, some of the systems you need to do your job may break once a week or once a month. However, support is usually pretty quick to get things working again (....unless you get one of the offshore groups, for some reason the company they picked to provide offshore support has no interest in comprehending problems, so they waste 2-3 days just trying to ask you the same questions over and over again)