Pros
1. Even if you don't work in Cary (and thereby dont enjoy most of the famous perks) SAS is comitted to the idea of work life balance. 2. If you work in customer facing role you get to work with Fortune 1000 firms on a regular basis as soemthing like 90%+ use SAS somwhere in their organizations. 3. Dr. Goodnight's decision to go with annual renewal model at the start of SAS keeps the cash rolling in, even when new product revenue growth seems quite slow. This makes the "minimize layoffs" policy possible. 4. You get to work with many, many smart people.
Cons
1. Culture is insular, and does not receive new ideas well. 2. Management team operates on the basis of staying in the good graces of Dr. Goodnight. So, crony-ism is king AND queen. There is very little of what I would call "leadership," instead I see the comparitively gentle application of authority by those blessed by Dr. Goodnight. 3. Lots of people stay here because they can coast, especially in corporate services (e.g mktg, HR), and what SAS calls R+D. So if you have passion for an idea, this can be a very frustating environment. 4. The whitest tech firm I have ever seen.