Pros
Government jobs eventually offer great pay and benefits for the positions. They slowly increase in pay over time and within 5-7 years you'll be making more than the equivalent position on the outside
Cons
Confrontational Taxpayers, your safety is almost a running gag, being overloaded with work, constant increases in demand on your time without commensurate changes in expectations for work loads, constant attacks on your position and authority from the public, management, and law makers. Your paycheck and benefits exist at the whim of politicians. Outdated and glacially slow computer systems make basic work items a chore. Arcane and unwritten practices and working for the government requires consistent highly intrusive background checks and draconian legal restrictions make it very difficult to leverage your skills into another job and impossible to speak your mind or seek part time gigs. Employee performance evaluations and systems are horrible, inaccurate, and leave a massive degree for personal bias. Under and over achievers are treated almost exactly the same. 10 years of hiring freeze and budget cuts have left the service a ghost of what it should be. Even if I wanted to transfer to another position it's nigh impossible to get past the high selection bias let alone find something you can apply to.
