Pros
- Salaries are decent in general, and benefits are pretty good by today's standards (health insurance, pension)
- Job security (for union roles)
- Internal mobility is a real thing - and it's even possible to change career paths without taking a pay cut
- The organization has real purpose
Cons
- There is no incentive pay (neither bonuses nor hikes based on performance)
- The bureaucracy can be heavy and the hierarchy quite rigid - implicit (and sometimes explicit) signals to "keep in one's lane"
- The nature of the organization (being owned by the province and, although self funding, strongly guided by provincial priorities) means that decision making is not always clear/consistent/fast.