Needs diversity and canning the political atmosphere
Pros
* Helping the sponsor is rewarding on a personal level * Good for your career when you leave MITRE - a 3 year MITRE stint on your resume looks good to other companies * Variety of work available is great - you can choose other projects to work on within the company * Benefits are good * Flexible work schedule promotes good work-life balance * You meet many, many smart people
Cons
* You meet many, many smart people who think they're smarter than everyone else * The strange mix in management - which is, many managers who are politically motivated - actually serves to tamp down the talent of many employees and they become afraid to make decisions that could be controversial * The office politics are excessive * Be careful what degree you have - if you do not have a public policy or a tech degree, you will feel your opinion is far less valuable to management * There's a distinct lack of thought diversity in MITRE and sometimes the solutions are like stagnant water