Vantaggi
Washington Federal has very strong management and core values that are apparent throughout the company. During the 2008 crisis, they were one of few banks that remained healthy and came out ahead due to their foresight in staying out of the sub-prime lending craze. WaFed has great people in its leadership positions who are very approachable and experienced. The bank has a conservative approach but it has proven to be quite beneficial over time. Additinoally, the atmosphere is great - the company is full of very nice people who are great to work with, and it is a relatively low stress environment.
Svantaggi
The salary is generally not great (although the fringe benefits are above average) and they ask a lot of their employees - people tend to be stretched thin doing multiple duties. This has a lot of big-picture benefits for the bank as a whole, but I noticed that it started to wear on some people after a while.