Pros
The CFA Institute has a beautiful, modern office with a great cafe fairly close to the Downtown Mall in Charlottesville. Work/life balance and benefits are good, pay is above-average for the area, and it does attempt to incorporate the latest in marketing and IT software and methods, along with sending employees to annual seminars and symposiums.
Cons
There are reorganizations that do not make sense to the point where some people have no clue what their roles cover - but everyone gets an "important" title (Head, Director, Manager). And the CFA Institute, unfortunately, is marred by a corporate, elitist atmosphere and snobbish people and an open office plan where you cannot escape from them. Perhaps this is due to the global nature of the organization and the wealthy individuals to whom it caters, or a microcosm of the investment management field in general, but it does not need to carry over to the everyday operation. Also, unless you consider blonde, brunette, and redhead to be ethnic groups, or include the Indian contractors, the CFA Institute is woefully lacking in diversity. African American, Latino, and Asian employees are few and far between, which is ironic for an organization that is now seeing the majority of its candidates come from India and China, and a city in Charlottesville with a major public university but that is still reeling from a violent fascist march less than two years ago.