Pros
Been at the District over 10 years, and have worked in two depts at various levels. If you are ambitious and are curious about different aspects of wastewater treatment, there are a ton of opportunities to explore different career paths. I can't speak for all departments, but in my experience, training is highly supported, both on-the-job and with external classes, so if you have an interest in a field, are motivated and show aptitude, you can plan a career path in whichever direction you'd like to go. The work is challenging but fulfilling, in Ops there's never a dull moment! You really feel connected to the core of our purpose as an operator, learning the complex systems all working together to treat the largest wastewater flow in our region, protecting public health and the environment - sounds preachy, but honestly I love what I do and would take this over selling useless widgets any day. I come to work with a purpose and feel valued for what I do every day. The District is pretty big, so it's hard to know everyone (over 400 people now!), but over the years I've come to know a lot of people and really enjoy working with pretty much everyone. Every place has a conflict here and there, but honestly with a new District Manager, a lot of the old issues are being resolved. We're still working on it, but it's so much better than before, and everyone is super optimistic and excited for the future.
Cons
Depending on which department you're in, schedules could be tough for some folks. We are always in need of night shift operators because it's tough, I won't lie. It wasn't so bad for me because I'm a night owl but it's tough for folks with kids or a lot of other commitments. However, they just beefed up the night differential recently, so if you're a night owl, it's awesome for extra pay. There's still some department/division silos here, but we've made some progress towards breaking those down and increasing communication in the past year or so. More improvement to come! Another thing management is working on is giving people a way to move up without necessarily having to be a manager - some technical tracks for career growth. Haven't seen this just yet but it's been announced as a goal. This would be great if we followed up on this, since not everyone necessarily wants to manage people (or are good at it), so this would give people a way to progress without being forced to be a supervisor.