Vantaggi
The pay, retirement, medical and vacation/sick leave are all great. You can potentially retire in 20 years. You start out getting 4 hours sick leave, 4 hours of vacation every two weeks. Then 6 hours vac,4 hrs sick after 3years of service, then 8 hrs vac, 4 hrs sick after 15yrs of service. Very interesting job IF you can handle the stress. Doesn't matter how smart you are, a rocket scientist could wash out at this job and a high school dropout could kick butt at it. It's an aptitude thing and how well you handle stressful situations calmly. Must be great at multitasking and paying very close attention to detail both visually and listening at the same time. Some really great people to work with.
Svantaggi
Some of the fellow controllers you work with are complete jerks! There are a lot of egos in this job, and some people let it go to their head and treat the new trainees like the lowest form of life on earth. Some controllers seem to take pleasure in "hazing" the new people and it can get personal. I have heard stories of fights breaking out back in the day. The worst part of the job is the when you are training. Problem is, that at an en-route center, training can last 4 years or more! A lot of people burn out during the training period, and in my opinion a good portion of the stress of the job is dealing with complete jerks that you work with. The problem is that once you make it as a certified professional controller, you are essentially untouchable and some people feel that they can say and do pretty much anything. The supervisors and trainers don't seem to want to step in and put these people in their place maybe because they know they have no real power to do so? Also the unsaid "rule" is that as a trainee you just shut your mouth and do not talk back to fully certified controllers, you are expected to just take the abuse. Very high schoolish work atmosphere in that there is a lot of immaturity.