Pros
Great benefits, leave, decent salary, great community. If you are in the right department and have a good office manager it can be great.
Cons
overworked and short staffed. teleworking is frowned upon unless you are an economist. long work hours, a lot of overtime. Contract based and very hard to get a permanent position. Very old fashioned some bosses treat you like there personal assistant and you have to do everything for them. US citizens have to pay taxes out of pocket as they don't get discounted. Have to do very old fashioned things like hard copies delivered to management. Management won't even print there own hard copies. unless you are friends or know somebody its hard to move to a higher position or get a raise. The office managers have to much power the HR department has no idea what is going on with staff assistants and research assistants. A lot of the office managers hire someone just because they are from the same country or a friend of a friend. you can work your butt of but they still wont get you a permanent position unless you are good friends with the office manager. Stay away from WHD and AFR. Procedures can be so complicated and outdated. A lot of competition between assistants because many of them depend on the job to stay in the US.