Pros
Will hire you with zero experience. Company provides paid training that sets the industry standard. They also pay for all licensing and do the paper work for you. Anyone who has filled out a coast guard application knows this is not a small deal. Pay is less than alot of other companies, but not to far off. They match up to 3% 401k. They also provide a pension, which for me is the biggest reason to work for them. The opportunity for advancement is definitely there if you work hard. I went from a new hire with no experience to a Relief Captain on a brand new boat in 5 years. Upper operations management and the executives seem to really know what they're doing. Very safety oriented. Overall a great place to work and build a career.
Cons
Not a lot of cons. The Port Captains play a lot of the blame game. They don't really let the Captains run the boat ,they try to run it from the office. I train a lot of steersman and hear constant complaints about the inefficiency of that department. Paydays are not consistent. They don't seem to value the deck crews as much as they should. There is no paid vacation for vessel personnel. You do get 10 days off a month,but you crew change on two of them. So you basically only get the weekend equivalent of a regular job.