Pros
I've been working at AMT for 2.5 years now as a robot and PLC programmer, and it's been a constant ride of fun and exciting technologies. I've always enjoyed logic puzzles, and this job basically lets me solve puzzles all day long and get paid to do it. There is a training academy that new hires go through to get familiar with robots and the programming behind them. To complete the academy, you have to program a robot to play Checkers and stack Jenga blocks. Playing Checkers with a freaking robot, think about that. I found myself having fun the whole time, while learning an awful lot about programming and best practices. These exercises seemed frivolous at first, but as you start venturing out on real assignments in the industry, you see that many applications require the robot to make logical decisions, or to stack products in a certain pattern. AMT prepared me well for the assignments, and help is always a phone call away if I run into problems. They support the employees very well and even when I'm not in the office, it feels like there's a solid team backing me up. One aspect of the job can be viewed as a Pro or Con depending on your perspective, and that is the travel. Since our programmers are often doing assignments at a customer's factory, we aren't in the office very much. In some cases, there will be assignments out of state that require you to leave home for 2 weeks. It's definitely not for everyone, but you can have a lot of fun with it. Travel expenses are all paid for and you may get to see some awesome places. Room for growth at AMT feels limitless. The first industry assignment I took on was very simple path teaching for a robot. There were very few logical decisions I had to program. After 6 months of that, I told my manager that I wanted a tougher challenge. He instantly obliged and found a senior engineer to train me on PLCs and tougher applications. Since then I've loved it, every day presents new puzzles that are mentally stimulating, and I love the feeling I get when I watch a robot run and know that I was responsible for it.
Cons
The only downside I've faced during my 2.5 years at AMT is how often I have to travel away from home. I take a lot of assignments out of state which results in a pattern of 2 weeks in a hotel near the customer, then a weekend at home, then back out on the road. This can get old really quickly, but I've been able to ask for a week off when I start to get burnt out and need to relax.