Pros
Free accommodation/meals - not an academic hothouse - decent holidays. Good camaraderie among staff. Pursue your interests and passions.
Cons
Goalposts constantly moving, struggling desperately to copy everyone else to compete in a sector, becoming more like a business every day. HM trying to stay relevant, redundancies galore, hiring cheap and under-qualified new staff. Few old dinosaurs still reaping the benefits. Full on - becomes your life. Can be treated like machines. Whole system takes and takes and takes, never gets easier, relies precariously on good will.