Pros
Nice variety of design tasks that allow growth beyond prior work experience. This is driven by necessity as it is difficult to attract top talent to our location south of Atlanta. Coworkers are generally supportive. Not a bad work environment compared to others in this area or the auto industry in general. Some positive remnants of Japanese corporate culture remain, even after acquisition by a global Private Equity firm. It will still be the US division of a Japanese company going forward, which can be a pro and a con.
Cons
Pay is lower due to scarcity of high tech opportunities south of Atlanta. Company was sustained by a few cash cow products that dried up due to the auto recession. Now we are feel like a software services company where the hardware is cheap crap wrapped in a nice user interface. Business is downsizing due to the recent takeover by a private equity company. Somehow we are still top heavy with management after slashing low-level engineers (same as it ever was). What's left will probably be sold to a competitor in a few years, in spite of grandiose IPO talk coming from mgmt.