Pros
It's a lot of fun - inquiries are very fun, writing isn't too hard to master their templates/focus and simplicity of messages. I like the people - many smart analysts. I worked very hard my first year to see what was possible even though I knew I took a low paying job - I wanted to see what it was like being an analyst for the #1 firm and if I could excel having never been an analyst before. If you're strong and put forth the work effort - you can be in the top 5-10% of all the analysts.
Cons
Yes there are many smart analysts, but I've found that they are many more who either don't know much laterally to their core topic (their tech silo) OR they are too lazy (or afraid) to take inquiries outside of the core strength in order to protect their value rating from clients - this is very annoying to constantly be filling in the gaps in coverage - sure, it's fun, but when you know others are not doing their job, that's a problem. Just giving clients "tech" advice only on one tech silo isn't what they need to hear every single time - they need to know the lateral issues, the people, processes, other tech interactions with your core tech. Need to know and advise with a more solution mindset - horizontally (or T shaped as Gartner calls it) - clients have business problems - it's never about the technology only.