Pros
AppD still has a great product that meets a genuine business need. With a decent account list, you will always make money. There are also excellent promotion / pay rise opportunities because there is such a high turnover of staff and management is desperate to positively spin this as a good thing meaning people are frequently promoted way above their capabilities. Good for the individual but some what self fulfilling as others then leave because they have managers with no experience, training or competency.
Cons
The biggest issue with AppD is the fact the thought leadership has all but gone. The real engine that drove AppD forward and made it successful has left. Those who have come in after just blindly try to replicate other peoples ideas but lack the authenticity and understanding. There are also major issues behind the scenes with the product development and SaaS which is very poorly managed resulting in numerous issues for customers. There has been a massive loss of developers meaning product release keep slipping back and Cisco has prioritised integration into its portfolio over any genuine innovation. The brain drain also extends to the Sales and Sales Engineering teams. Huge name customers with massive lifetime spend are now being managed by very inexperienced reps who have no idea about the product, the company or how to get anything done. All up, AppD is still a good place to be, but it is not the rocket ship or start up people claim it to be. This is because the real A Players have long gone and those who have been recruited to back fill are just not of the same calibre.