Vantaggi
Salary and benefits were within a reasonable range, albeit lower than that of my male peers.
Svantaggi
Diversity is basically nonexistent, While there are a lot of great people, there is still a latent sexism and racism which goes mostly unchallenged. I was guilty of just putting up with it and acting deferential to certain male peers who seemed to need that in order to bolster their fragile egos. Often there is only one woman on a team and there is a general understanding that she is expected to get coffee and take minutes at meetings, even if it is just one "good ol' boy" (and there are plenty of those) creating that expectation, no one speaks up. When I attempted to contribute to meetings I would be manterrupted and my ideas would be co-opted and mansplained. It was incredibly depressing to be in that stifling environment day in and day out at this point in my career, at mid-life. I was headhunted by recruiters for other companies at several stages in my tenure at CoBank, and I gladly took my wealth of experience elsewhere. Unfortunately, my previous manager still gives me a tellingly lukewarm reference and has poisoned the well by sharing confidential information about my personal life. You just have to move on from these sorts of experiences; I am so grateful CoBank is in my past.
