Pros
The relationship you can, very limitedly however, form relationships with a few of your students. Pay is also very high, but not worth it.
Cons
You will be treated horribly by this company. They don't care about their employees whatsoever, and will lure you in with a great starting pay. However, the turn-over rate is exceptionally high and they are always hiring. Residential hours are awful. You will be told you'll have flexible, awesome hours but it will be everything but that. Your schedule is made based on what's most convenient for the senior staff, but get this - "senior staff" have only been there for 1 year because they can't retain any of their employees. You'll be required to work a 14 hour weekend day, and more than likely an 18 hour AWAKE overnight shift. So, even though you have 4 days off, you'll spend 2 of those catching up on sleep. This job will take over your life. You also don't get breaks. Although Melmark tells you that residential staff get breaks when the kids go to bed, you don't. You are stuck with the kids all day, sometimes for 14 hours. And forget trying to go to the bathroom or have a snack, the other staff will be extremely put off if you ask someone to watch over your kid for 2 minutes. This school might do a few good things for some kids, but some of the things I saw broke my heart. Not sure how or what the clinicians are basing their treatments off of, but allowing a child to have non-stop self-injurious behavior without any intervention is just not right. Unless you're okay with going against your gut feeling when it comes to the safety and well-being of kids, don't work here. Melmark pushes the ABA limits, which will break your heart when you just can't do anything for some of the kids. The pay is simply not worth it.