Pros
A lot of possibilities to advance the mission of NIH and public health. It's really a good feeling to be part of the mission.
Cons
While mission of NIH is really great, working to achieve it through corrupt hiring has made it close to impossible. The fact that NIH can get any work done is a miracle with type of workers and managers running the show. Is everyone bad? No these are good people. Some are bad and know how to work the system others are just enjoying the ride by doing minimum. With no real way to be replaced, US tax payers continue to pay the salaries of unskilled and nonperforming workers. These nonperforming workers get promoted to managers by their friends. Hiring is not fair. Federal employees lack the skills to do the job and so contractors hired to do the work. Some contractors have been there for years. These contractors act and behave like federal employees. Federal employee who supposed to provide oversight become friends with contractors and fail to provide proper oversight resulting in waste of public funds. Discrimination and nepotism is wide spread. Hiring by unskilled managers results in hiring unskilled federal and contract staff. Even the internship hiring is corrupt by hiring family and/or friends.