Pros
-Location! Big Bear/Lake Arrowhead is gorgeous and a fun place to explore, especially if you like to ski/snowboard! -Co-Workers. You get to meet people from all walks of life who have had so many cool experiences and outlooks on education/the outdoors. -Curriculum and training. The training is absolutely top notch. They go out of their way to almost "over" train you on the classes, the kids and the area. Usually outdoor ed and camp jobs will just throw you into a classroom with a powerpoint and a dream, but during the two weeks of training you are put in almost an education bootcamp where everything--and I mean everything -- is covered. I actually thought I was teaching something meaningful to the kids, not just halfway doing something. -Resume builder. Looks absolutely fire for any other camp job you go to. It is a great place to cut your teeth and earn your stripes in outdoor ed. Since it is ropes course heavy, that's a great way to get on a course and quite literally learn the ropes! -Housing. None of the houses are that bad on storage or space. It's like living in a dorm and if you get lucky, it's truly like living with a found family. -Food. Not bad, repetitive, but edible and perfectly decent for camp food.
Cons
-Hours, roughly 1000 kids come through Pali each week and you are expected to lead your own cabin 24hrs a day as well as teach classes from other schools. It was incredibly draining and confusing. Everyone's morale around April plummets faster than a lead blimp, with no help or support from leadership. People were so sick and exhausted and struggling with just a sneer from leadership. -Money. Of course, no one goes into outdoor ed for the money and the fame, but gahhdaamm brother. It's the equivalent to 5 dollars an hour for being in charge of a kids life 24 hours a day. The "pay bumps" that they do are roughly 5 extra dollars A DAY. Not an hour A DAY. -Leadership. Like others have said, it's a clique. Several amazing candidates were not only consistently put out of consideration, but bullied and treated differently after they weren't selected. Everyone is in their early to mid twenties and don't really know what they're doing. So much unprofessional behavior, especially from Ed/Procords. Always acting super snippy on the radio and getting upset should you ask them something relevant to their jobs. Upper leadership is especially bad about ignoring problems and have straight up ignored violence that has occurred in the houses. -Upward mobility. Unless you're screwing one of management, good luck moving forward. -Housing. I got lucky with an amazing group of people to live with, but others have really struggled with their living situation. You don't really get privacy, no single rooms are available unless you are leadership. If you get bad roommates, you're kinda screwed for 5 months.