Pros
The atmosphere within Student Affairs at UCSB is geared around improvement and knowledge sharing/building. From your first day on the job you are giving the contact information of all staff which are specialists in the different disciplines needed to complete your job. You are also given opportunities to meet with those people for one-on-one training sessions. From time to time when new technologies are introduced or an old technology is found to be heavily used, training sessions/discussions are scheduled for all who can attend. These sessions/discussions are also open to developers in other departments and any student workers. The leadership of Student Affairs is very informed about campus wide projects and pressures. Their projected plans stretch out to around 10 years in the future, as turn over and state budget implications make it difficult to accurately predict anything past that point. Even the 5 to 10 year plans are open to change, but are pretty good estimates.
Cons
The biggest drawback is the lack of funding. Even though there are opportunities for advancement, the salaries are still below industry average. And those low salaries are combined with a high cost of living, making a mix that can be stressful. At times it can feel like you aren't able to save enough money to improve things at your home; usually a rental, very rarely ownership. That is the same stressful feeling that is found at work, as it sometimes feels like the budget is never large enough to provide for technology improvements. This also makes for development teams that sometimes under staffed; especially during recessions.
