Pros
Good benefits, good pay (if you're tenured). Once tenured, it's very difficult to be fired, or laid off. Lots of various agencies you can work for. Many opportunities available for environmental scientists and engineering geologists
Cons
The pay gap between environmental scientists and engineering geologists is astounding. They literally do the same amount of work, and have the same qualifications, yet engineering geologists make about 20-40% more than scientists do. There are way too many positions available with so little work to be done. It takes years for new permits to be developed and amended. YEARS. There are TONS of lazy employees here. It's astounding how someone can make $75,000-$125,000 annually, and they can just sit back and collect paychecks while doing the the most minimal amount of work. Granted, this is largely due to upper management being lazy and disconnected. Not every supervisor has these qualities, however. But it's a joke. Clear bias between management and tenured employees. I was constantly being disrespected by a senior staff, and nothing was done about it. Employees are just pigeon holed into positions and they have free reign to do whatever, and act however they want. You have little recourse when its your word versus theirs. When I left, the environment was so toxic. HR could care less. There is a real disconnect between the state and regional water boards; they simply do not work cohesively. This lead to lots of bureaucracy and inaction
