Pros
There is room to shine if you can find a niche and there are many talented people in lower and middle management to director level who pour their hearts into their work because they care about public television and take pride in doing a good job. Benefits are pretty good--I have had better, and while salary is on the low end for my skills and experience, I have a lot of autonomy about how I do my job and the support of a strong supervisor who ensures I have good access to software and training. Solid policies and infrastructure, and there are very very few stupid people in the building. Almost everyone is smart. That is an enormous plus.
Cons
Upper management frequently comes across as siloed and territorial. There have been some efforts at collaboration but because these efforts rarely happen at the levels where the work actually gets done, divisions almost operate almost as separate companies. People tend to not know others outside their immediate reporting structures, unless they are in a unit that serves other portions of the organization. This is a big weakness. This weakness is not the design of a grand villain, it's just overworked people trying to maintain control of a slice of the pie they care about. So many unsung heroes like those in facilities and IT support--infrastructure is well planned and headed in the right direction but grossly under-resourced. There is lots of waste in duplication. In most membership organizations, member services manages the flow of information to members, but governance is very weak at PBS. The organization values autonomy -- and it is a two-edged sword. Untidy inner workings, snide comments and gossip means contradictory information is disseminated to customers, eroding their trust the organization. And it's hard to unravel who said what. There is no organization wide CRM.
