Pros
You’re guaranteed to make lifelong friends and meaningful work relationships here; the employees are the best part of this job. If you ever need help or advice, turn to one of your coworkers and they’ll do their best to give you the right answer. You will also learn so much as you will be given different roles you weren’t trained for, then held responsible for your new roles as though that were what you prepared for your whole life. That being said, this is great for resume and skill building- take advantage of it. You will gain experience in accepting criticism and being told that you or your ideas are wrong or not good enough. You’ll become skilled at reading between the lines, because you can’t take anything at face value and nothing that is said is what is truly meant. You’ll gain skills in keeping your opinion to yourself. You’ll also get daily training in dealing with difficult management that doesn’t seem to appreciate you or your work. And the most important lesson you’ll learn is how a company should not operate. Working here will make you appreciate absolutely everything when you move on to a new opportunity. If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere.
Cons
You spend long hours doing nothing then are chastised for not having done anything. You are told it's okay to ask and you won't be bugging anyone, but management does not like questions or when you need clarification. No task or project is important until it is important. You’ll rarely get feedback on projects unless you constantly press for it. Everything is done last-minute and you can never be prepared for anything. There’s no comp time for long hours worked. There’s no sense of teamwork and each department is encouraged to stay separate. There are a lot of secrets here and no one is trusted with anything. Management is constantly suspicious and tries to figure out what’s going on with an employee by talking to others instead of asking the employee directly. Many employees are disgruntled and management either cannot see it or chooses to ignore it. Creativity is not encouraged; employees are expected to do exactly what they are told and nothing else-new ideas or improvements are ignored. There is no upward mobility. Raises and promotions do not happen unless pressure is applied or as a last-ditch effort.