Vantaggi
I have worked in multiple offices within the agency and most bosses are incredibly flexible with schedules and understanding of family time. I have been there for 8 years. There are always opportunities to move around offices and you can usually make your own opportunities. It is a good to place to be exposed to different aspects of the agency. It is an incredibly stable job with great benefits; pension, up to 5% matching retirement plan, health benefits are affordable.
Svantaggi
There is a lack of training for almost all of the offices. It is also different to grow professionally if you are not an engineer, lawyer or scientist. Their requirements for hiring higher positions are made of almost impossible requirements for anyone below a certain salary level to succeed to a supervisor or management position. Although a stable career with a friendly environment, it could operate more efficiently and streamline a lot of processes. The majority of the employees have been here for 20+ years and it is difficult to change processes that were created when they first started. There is a lack of innovation although it is slightly improving- the pace of it is probably due to the difficulty the OK for things because you have to reach out to Congress, Headquarters, or a million other people just to get an answer.