Pros
The retirement plan. The company matches dollar for dollar up to 4% fully vested, and additionally contributes 7% with a five year vesting period. Two weeks of paid vacation (after six months of employment) isn't bad either, and it is mandatory that five of those vacation days are consecutive. The company also has a pretty good set of corporate values which I'd say are more or less striven for both externally and internally; most people from the front line to the back office seem interested in doing the right thing by people. For the most part work hours only fall during the work week, though we are beginning to see this change.
Cons
The pay, especially for entry level positions. A lot of banks are hard to get hired on at without prior experience; Washington Federal will hire you, but they won't pay you what those are banks are paying people in the same position. When I started a coworker who has been with the bank for some time told me that Washington Federal is the bank that trains people on good banking practices before they go to other banks to get paid more; there has been a lot more truth to this than I realized. It was not until I transferred to a back office position that I finally got bumped up to a decent wage. I am very confident that I make more now than my former branch coworkers, and I suspect I make close to if not more than my former branch manager. If you are going to work for Washington Federal try to either get a back office position or work your way into one. Not only will you have a lot better chance of sticking around to enjoy that retirement plan, but back office (support staff) employees are bonused differently (better) than branch employees.