Pros
It was nice to work on projects that I believe "make a difference" for communities and locations within the country - Even though my role was very minuscule. I enjoyed learning about the research phase of the industry our department specialized in. Free snacks. Work atmosphere was very laid-back. 99% of the people I worked with were great people who I truly enjoyed being around and getting to know. Extracurricular activities were fun. The location itself was in a *fairly* "walkable" part of town, which I enjoyed.
Cons
There is a lot of downtime between projects. However, I'm sure much of this cannot be helped. This is not a place where there is much room for growth for lower level staff/people without graduate degrees. There are people working at this company who have been there for 3+ years and work two jobs because the pay is quite low, even for the area. I spoke to my supervisor over the phone one time and one time only, in which she told me that I could contact her should I ever need anything. I took her up on her offer only to be met with no response or a 2 week response time to my emails most of the time. Going from being an intern - who worked 40 hours a week and did the same amount of work as some of the full-time workers in the office - to having my status changed to full-time and salaried, moved at a glacial pace. It's evident that the company does not value lower level staff as they expect people to put their lives on hold while they wait on months of "approval" from corporate to get paid more for doing the same work that some full time employees do.