Pros
Benefits are amazing. Great work-life balance. I love my coworkers, and my boss is great! Tuition waiver for SIU campuses for Prinicpal Administrative staff (and for all Illinois universities for civil service staff).
Cons
Pay: As you will hear time and time again: take home pay is too low. I work two jobs to make ends meet, and so do many of my coworkers. I have been at SIU Medicine/in my department for a few months shy of 4 years, and the turnover in that time has been intense. To make matters worse, this is not a job you can train someone for in a month - it takes 6 months to a years to be fully functional in clinical research, and most of our people are leaving shortly after they've reached minimum competency levels.
Training: Education and training is exceptionally necessary for clinical research, but I don't see many opportunities promoted beyond the basics. Department will pay for you take take the SOCRA exam, but not for the training related to it. Would be nice to have additional resources/opportunities.
Limited opportunity for advancement: You may be told you are valued, take on tasks outside your job description, get employee of the month, etc. But if you're like me and you eventually NEED a higher salary in order to stay, you'll be told there's nothing they can do.