Pros
No doubt there are some initial good aspects of AB. Good Pay, especially once you reach manager level, great 401k match (If you stay 3-4 years otherwise it is worth $0) Most positions take on A LOT of responsibility. There is usually a good mixture of co-workers that have the smarts and drive that contribute to a productive office environment. Then of course you are working for a global powerhouse with close to $50 Billion in revenue which is good for future resume building. It is also my personal belief that AB makes the best beer in the world when it comes to QA. If you are new to your career (less than 2-3 years experience) and you can get hired here; do it. You will learn a lot. If you have more than 6 years experience, I would stay away.
Cons
You look at your "Compensation" and see that you can get 20-30% of your pay in a yearly bonus, only to find out the company almost never pay out that bonus. This is due to unrealistic expectations in budget. Though the stock price keeps increasing due to great performance, the internal budget is set in order to almost never achieve the bonus payout goal. The Long Term Incentives for stock options vest after 5 years, so do not even try and include that as part of your compensation benefit. They should be renamed ELTI; extremely long term incentives. There are too many Director level individuals that have no real skill sets besides presenting performance reports from a power point. Middle management seems to do all the work while you have these directors adding no value to the team. Part of it might be because people move to new jobs every 12 months (sometimes less) and leave their previous position a mess. Another great fraud is the annual peer review. Sr Manager's and Directors get to pick their own peers to review them. This of course leads to the directors only picking their friends who will give them great reviews. Any normal capitalist will of course never pick someone that might give them a negative review. When executives look at their Director's review, they only see positive comments and it reassures everyone these people are good for the company. Other things that drove me crazy: - Last minute mind set - Slow computers - Short staffed (on purpose) so there are a lot of administrative tasks everyone had to waste their time on
