Pros
AEP does cool, important stuff. They build things, they make energy, they manage natural resources. They have lots of admin and business and tech systems to support all of that work. Working at AEP can provide a great opportunity to learn a lot about interesting work and grow a lot in your field. I believe compensation is pretty good, at least for my field. 6 weeks paid sick leave is automatic, not cumulative like most job, which is great if you have young kids and are sick all the time. Most managers are very flexible, informally/unofficially about schedule and family issues, etc.
Cons
I have been with AEP over 8 years. Sometime in 2020 I feel like leadership just broke. It was much better prior to that. Or maybe I was still too new to notice the issues. Since 2020 there is constant, seemingly arbitrary, leadership and organizational change. There is never any change management or even decent communication about why changes are happening. Major changes never get an opportunity to be tested, socialized, and evaluated because shortly after implementation they’re scrapped for the next change. I have been here long enough now to see many people fail up to senior leadership, repeatedly! Poster child for corporate politics and BS, all of it obscure and opaque to the average employee, which can be demoralizing. Career opportunities is a mixed bag. You can learn a lot here through exposure and opportunities to take on big things with little prior experience. But, There are not a lot of opportunities to climb the ladder in terms of title and salary. That has recently been flattened.