Pros
Working for an institution of higher education with a diverse student body feels better than churning out widgets for Evil Corp. Information Technology is largely centralized and appears to be appropriately funded, with ongoing efforts to improve efficiency, communication, and service delivery. There are definitely some passionate people to work with.
Cons
There seem to be leadership issues at higher levels that trickle down through the organization, resulting in a politicized atmosphere with some stagnation and fear of making mistakes. That said, there seems to be support for implementing best practices and frameworks (like ITIL), which help to cut through some of these issues. Possibly related to pension and unionized employees, there are definitely some "old timers" and pension seekers doing the minimum to get through to the day they vest, which can be a drag on passionate employees. In central IT at least, positions are siloed with limited scope of responsibility and room for growth. It is easy for employees to say that something is "not their problem", when they could definitely contribute to a solution.
