Pros
There are verifiable benefits that they provide to the City of Los Angeles and young adults who otherwise aren't provided opportunities to prove themselves capable. They rebuild sidewalks, plant trees, help with waste management, and provide disaster relief.
Cons
If you don't have a degree or you hadn't started there as a corps member, you're definitely going to be passed over for consideration to upper management positions. Executive management is so focused on saving face and pushing pet initiatives that have little to no positive impact that they neglect the dysfunction at their various sites. Unqualified individuals are promoted or hired on to do work they don't understand and have very little experience in, with the knockdown effects being lower morale in their direct reports and lack of coordination and efficiency in accomplishing job tasks. Their focus on quantity over quality has resulted in poor quality trees distributed to residents and planted along streets all over the city.