Pros

There are interesting project areas, if you are able to switch to a different project, it will help keep one interested. They do have some internal "online" training courses, but they are mostly useless to development, but you are able to view some books online which is nice to have handly. You get the typical free soda, coffee and doughnut Tuesdays. Management is willing to upgrade your hardware if you need them, as long as you can make a business case for new hardware, they will provide it.

Cons

McAfee lacks support for those who want to better themselves, there is no mentorship from higher ups or recognition of people who want to be more proactive and participate in other functional areas. Poor design ideas are thought up in a vacuum by management without asking for feedback or participation of team members. This attitude of management knows best is one reason McAfee is a follower and not a leader in its market. In fact this has been openly stated that we want to be just good enough and let our sales teams crank out the sales!

You feel like a hand not a brain over here, you have to really fight hard to get cool stuff to work on. Usually all the decisions are made for you and then it's up to you to complete the task. You are not appreciated as a thinking member of a bigger team. Lack of resources, people keep getting switched on and off projects. My biggest beef is that it seems like you're always busy working hard, but really noting gets accomplished. Lot of smart people here, but most have given up and it enough for them to just show up to work! This company needs a overhaul on being innovative!!! This can only come from the ground up, because the top-down approach is totally not working here.

Advice to Senior Management

Take pride in what you build, don't just sell the spin, invest in real home grown R&D.

The company needs to be "proactive" in involving keen developers in different aspects of the design and development cycles. This should be more than just attending a brain-numbing meeting. If I hear one more time the code is the document then we got the wrong people in charge who just don't get it.