Pros
- great first job out of college - amazing benefits: health insurance, hotel points, airline miles - Madison has a low cost of living and, at least if you're IS, you're gone a lot (and thus not using utilities, paying for meals, driving, etc.), which also keeps down costs - generally surrounded by smart, high-achieving people - a ton of young people, and once-a-month start dates give you a cohort and instant big social circle - easy and cheap to add personal trips onto work trips - at least for IS, lots of experience that translates well to other jobs (future employers love "Project Manager" on my resume) - the food is cheap and amazing (and healthy) - nice campus - the company has a ton of money - you earn money (a not insignificant amount) for getting certified in additional applications
Kontras
- horrible work-life balance: expected to work late nights, weekends, no questions asked - constant travel, often to pretty lame places - especially with constant travel, flying into Madison can be a nightmare - often the first flights that are canceled, and you can't fly anywhere except MSP, ORD, DTW, and MKE without making a connection - TLs often have no idea what they're doing - clients can be horrible and interacting with them is often like babysitting - lots of hand-holding and taking the blame for things that they do wrong - the often-collegiate-like atmosphere leads to similarly collegiate drama (people dating/sleeping together/etc) and lots of gossip - because they hire almost exclusively straight out of college, it's difficult to really understand the larger context of the field