Pros
Work is rewarding. You can make a real difference. The products you help design will feel like your children and give you a sense of pride seeing them in action all around the world. You simulate, build, test, work with manufacturing, learn design for manufacturing, desgn for service, and lean principles. Basically the design is truly in your hands. Always been a place where it is better to ask for forgiveness, not permission. This means you have ability try new ways, just make sure they work. Basically though, you are in manufacturing based career, so you are competing with the world, you will spend time training cheaper overseas labor to eventuality take your job. This is the way of the world for the last few decades, last stop Africa. I feel for the younger generation who will never know this. They will be the one's asking how to do stuff eventually, or asking if you want fries with that. Been in manufacturing based career since the 70's. Genie was the best place I ever worked, lots of smart enthustic coworkers, fun projects, generally realistic timelines, In choosing this kind of work it becomes hard to not make it consume your life, expect some late nights if you want to suceed.
Cons
Manufacturing in America is slowly being eroded, now considered "dirty". If you think all the expertise we learned when we (USA) were a manufacturing powerhouse will not be lost as more content is outsourced, think again. Sorry, I don't think this is Genie specific, just manufacturing specific. Financial engineering just games the system, accelerating the highs and lows. The great recession is proof of that. Bob, Ward, and Rodger were true visionaries, Ron was a dreamer who spent like a drunken sailor, and John is a taskmaster, so you may not feel as much job satisfaction as in the past. Don't kid yourself the third world is desperate for work and are ruining the environment and putting their workers at risk like we did in the USA in the past. I guess we just don't care as long as it is not in my back yard. Not enough customer engagement, need better proceses for spending "seat time" with the products , and more unfiltered customer feedback.