1. My direct supervisor is pretty good—the type who charges ahead with me, rather than the type who tells me to go die.

2. The PGs are quite responsible. They usually stay with the on-site staff to solve problems together.

3. There’s a lot of freedom, but if a client pressures you into working overtime and you don’t have what it takes to get away, you’ll be working overtime until you die.

1. The vice president has serious problems with emotional control. He’s not a gangster, but he acts very much like one. You submit a program with bugs, but a few days later you’re expected to submit a second program. You’re told to negotiate with the client to leave the bugs unfixed until the second program is delivered… But if the program can’t be used, what is there to negotiate about? If you fail to do it, he may even curse at you, saying things like, “Fuck your mother,” and “You all treat what I say like bullshit.”

2. I don’t know whether this counts as a drawback, but please refer to point three under the pros: I spent three months arriving at the client’s site at 10 a.m. every morning and leaving work at 11 p.m. I had no more than ten days off during those three months, including national holidays.