Risk averse management, government-like bureaucracy
Pros
Great technology, working with tier one suppliers and customers, exciting projects and products. Smart people to work with. Fair and decent employer with some of the best employee benefits around. Opportunity to learn.
Cons
Ingrained silo-mentality; not much cross-pollination between different divisions. Very hard to break into higher level management if you are not Italian or French. Internecine civil war between these fractions. Unnecessary layers of management. Company is treated as a social service by the French and Italian governments which are part owners, resulting in massive employment levels in those countries. Failures are not sanctioned. Cuts made in other parts of the world, impacting bottom line. High level decisions are often made based on political and economic realities of France and Italy, not on what is best for the company.